Personal Umbrella
by Winged Cyborg
Summary: Previously The Lotus Trapped Heart. Kanda never thought he'd be perfectly happy to die for someone. The girl in question had the brightest smile and deadliest aim in Kanda's small universe. KandaXOC
1. Prologue

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

Jessica had never known love before. She had been a scrawny orphan until now.

She wondered why she had been found. It couldn't be coincidence. Of course not. But it wasn't fate either. Fate's hand brought destruction, not mercy.

Internally, she thanked whatever divine force had redeemed her. Thanks to that force-whichever one it was-she could play piano, she had someone who loved her, and she was washed and fed every day. She was no longer a poor begging orphan; she was Jessica, the best friend of Miss Victoria. She wasn't a nobody.

She was awoken from her reverie when she heard Miss Victoria laughing. She watched from her secure tree. She was waiting for a signal. Miss Victoria was going to smile and twirl her hair around her finger, and Jessica would jump out of the tree and run over to ask her to play.

Jessica was confident that this was going to work. She didn't know how, but Miss Victoria was very smart. She'd promised Jessica a home. She'd told her that after this, she could have her own things. Her own clothes even!

Jessica shifted on her branch. The prospect of being treated like a lady excited her. She would have her own clothes! She was in awe of this simple part of ownership. Jessica had never had her own things; she'd been born in a large mansion, yes, but as a maid's daughter. She was shoved onto the streets when she had shown no desire to be civilised, insisting on helping the boys when they tended the gardens and adventured through the bushland.

Jessica scrambled down the tree as she saw her mistress curl three ochre curls around her slender fingers. She came to an abrupt halt when she saw who Miss Victoria was talking to. The nun from the orphanage! Jessica didn't like this. Not at all. She had seen the nun before, collecting orphans from the streets. All street children were in constant fear that they would be taken.

She took a few steps back as she saw the nun smile.

Of course she smiled; she reminded herself, she was glad to have another filthy beggar child for her vile orphanage.

"Ah, Victoria, this must be the child you spoke of?" The nun said. Jessica found herself hating her voice. And she'd used Miss Victoria's name!

"Yes, Augusta, that's her. Just as I told you, quite savage." Miss Victoria was glaring at her. Jessica was quite scared. Was this part o the game?

"Indeed. Quite uncivilised. Wearing breeches!" The nun exclaimed. Her smile seemed to be quite cruel, or was it just a trick of the light?

"How soon can you take her?" Miss Victoria asked. Jessica sensed venom in this sentence. But venomous or not, she still found it confusing.

"W-Where? Where are you taking me?" She was scared now. Away from Miss Victoria? That would not do.

"The orphanage, child, where else would I send a disgusting child such as you?" She sneered.

"The orphanage? But…You promised I'd have a home!" She cried.

Miss Victoria laughed bitterly.

"Yes. But I never promised it would be very nice." Miss Victoria's lip curled.

Suddenly, Jessica hated her mistress. She suddenly seemed to be extremely repulsive, like an animal that had just eaten its young. Jessica had the sudden urge to run. As far away from this filthy creature as possible. Her ochre coloured hair was dull, as were her forget-me-not blue eyes. The former had lost its shine and the latter its sparkle.

Suddenly, Jessica lost all of her previous desires to be like Miss Victoria.

---

Sad music rang out across the orphanages dining hall. The orphans glanced repetitively at the piano placed near the door.

Playing upon it was a young girl of about ten. She wore a snowy white shirt and grey vest with a skirt to match. A vivid scarlet ribbon adorned her collar, and she wore laced two-tone shoes on her slender (but nevertheless long) feet. Her creamy pale blond hair was fixed into a secure knot at the back of her head, her bangs neatly framing her periwinkle blue eyes. She was not beautiful of course; she was too sombre for that. Stoic, yet her eyes bore more emotion than those of the other orphans.

There were many rumours that circled around this girl. Many orphans told a wild tale about how she had attempted to escape five years ago. Others claimed that she had once been a cunning thief. All of these rumours were true, of course. But there was one that sparked the interest of the orphans most of all. This rumour was said to have been a first-account of what the girl had told orphans years ago.

The tale itself was about all of Jessica's misdeeds. It was a rather long story that she had told an orphan three years before, when the orphan had asked why she had lost all hope of escaping. The tale ended after her twentieth beating, also her twentieth failed escape. The children were in awe of her skill, her daring, and her recklessness. Many said that it was because of being a thief that she had been so tricky to catch in the beginning.

No matter how many rumours or stories were told about Jessica Abfangher Crucis, they were all based on solid fact. This, however, just put the children in more awe of her than ever. Something Jessica did not wish to be part of.

***

The small town had been sweltering, yes, and there had been reports of bushfires on other areas of the bush-mainly nearer to Adelaide-but there was no doubt in anybody's minds that the fire had been an act of arson.

The fire had been set behind the orphanage, and before anyone had realised any danger, the three-storey orphanage was ablaze. In the process of the fire forty orphans were burnt to death, and twelve were critically injured.

However, the strangest thing about the twelve injured is that they were all reported as severely injured, yet when a doctor was sent to tend to them, they had all disappeared.

Years later, many children told wild tales about the twelve. Most of them told that they had been taken to lab, where scientists replaced now-useless body parts with arms and legs of metal, allowing these children to have strength beyond belief.

But, it is with these tales, rumours and theories that our story begins. Our story of Jessica Abfangher Crucis (which, incidentally, is a name given to her by the church-besides her Christian name, of course) is not over yet. It has barely even begun.

____________________________________________________________________

**A/N:**

**Hi, guys. PROLOGUE of The Lotus-Trapped Heart. **

**You should also be able to find it on DeviantART. My dA is Re-thinkYourLife. Or just search "DGM Kanda love story" and it should come up.**


	2. Australia anyone?

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter One- Australia anyone?**

This was not Kanda's week. For the first three days, Lavi had been sugar high, knocking on Kanda's door at night, often multiple times, to request ridiculous things, such as Kanda's box of hair ties, backrubs, and Kanda's stretchy leather pants.

After that, Kanda's box of hair ties and stretchy leather pants mysteriously disappeared. They mysteriously reappeared again when Kanda attacked Lavi for no apparent reason.

After that, no one would fight him, so he couldn't fight.

After that, he slept in and missed breakfast.

And finally, Komui had attacked him when he was talking to Lenalee about her dark boots.

But this took the cake –Kanda made a mental note not to mention cake near the Moyashi-, Komui had just assigned him a mission, with the Usagi and Moyashi no less, to Australia to retrieve Innocence. _Australia _for Christ's sake! Why couldn't the Innocence wielders be in places closer to home? Up the road, for example, that would be a great spot to retrieve Innocence from.

They were to leave tomorrow. Kanda sighed and retrieved his bag from a corner of the room, stuffing essentials into it like a change of clothes, sleeping pills, antibiotics and bandages. He shuddered to think what the others were packing. Giant stuffed rabbits probably.

---

In Lavi's room he and Allen were discussing the trip, while Lavi packed.

"Australia! Won't it be great, Lavi?!" Allen exclaimed.

"I hear the girls are hot there." Lavi remembered.

Lavi searched under his bed for anything he'd forgotten.

"Hey, Allen?" A muffled voice came from under the bed.

"Yeah?" Allen asked, hoping it was something important.

Lavi emerged from under his bed, grasping what appeared to be a giant stuffed rabbit.

"Do you think this'll fit in my suitcase?" He asked excitedly.

---

It had been seven years since the fire, and twelve years since she had been first taken to the orphanage, but Jessica was still in one piece. Well, now that she thought about it, she was really in several different pieces that had decided to work as a team for the time being.

She had received word yesterday from the Directress-via her many contacts in the Underworld and the other organisations employed by the Vatican-that there would be a group of people called Exorcists-part of an organization named the Black Order-who would be coming to "collect" her to take to their organization. Jessica wasn't sure why, but the telegram had mentioned a substance called "Innocence" which she, apparently, wielded. As far as she could gather, she was to be taken to become an Exorcist also.

Jessica was not at all sure that she wished to partake in this "Black Order". But as they were also working for the Vatican, she would have to have faith that they were competent.

She had packed as soon as she had heard that she was going to be leaving. She had already made arrangements for a train to Sydney Town to have reservations for four people, although he had not told them when because they had not asked. Jessica presumed that they would take a while to arrive, seeing as the Black Order was located in England. But she could not be sure, because all she had been told was that they were coming, not when they had set off, or even if they had set off.

All that Jessica wished for herself was that they were civilised.

---

Kanda was not having a very good time on this boat, to say the least. It was unstable and unpredictable, so therefore unreliable. Kanda didn't like unreliable things-especially modes of transport. This simple statement said a lot about Kanda's personality, really, because Kanda didn't like _anyone_, unless they were reliable, predictable and decent fighters. Nor did he respect anyone who was unreliable.

This was exactly why he hated the Moyashi and Usagi. They were-mentally-unstable, unpredictable-to an extent, at least-and unreliable in general. Well, you could always rely on them to act the hero, but really, they were unreliable in any other situation.

Which was also why he hated being cooped up with them, the unstable, unpredictable and unreliable Exorcists, on this unstable, unpredictable and unreliable mode of transport. It also made him queasy, but Kanda wasn't sure whether this was due to mild seasickness or the overdosage of extreme retardedness in the room.

Rather suddenly, there was a knock on the cabin door. Kanda ran to open it, anything to get him away from Lavi braiding his hair. To his surprise, when he opened the door, there was a young girl standing there. She looked to about 15, with wavy brown hair-Kanda noticed that the tips were blood red-and the lower part of her face and neck seemed to be metallic. Kanda really hoped it was a strange mask.

The girl looked him up and down.

"Are you an Exorcist from the Black Order?" She asked. Her voice reminded him of an Akuma's.

"Yes." He replied tentatively.

She nodded approvingly.

"My name is Annabelle Cross. I am the Eighth Disciple of the Australian Vatican-employed organization, the Disciples." She said.

Why did that sound very familiar?

"You're part of the same organization as Jessica Crucis?" He asked, finally remembering.

"Yes, I am. She is the Third Disciple, and therefore my superior." She hesitated for a moment. "May I come in? I have something I wish to discuss with you and your colleagues."

Kanda stepped aside so she could enter into the Exorcists cabin, closing the door behind her. As soon as she entered the room she drew the attention of both younger boys. Kanda could almost see Lavi shifting into Lecherous Mode.

"Who's this Yuu-chan?" Lavi asked in his most annoying voice.

"This," Kanda growled. "Is Annabelle Cross. She is a member of the same organization as Jessica Crucis, the Innocence wielder."

Lavi's face drooped visibly. Members of Vatican-employed organizations were not allowed to liaise with members of other Vatican-employed organizations. Kanda internally grinned; Lavi's disappointed face was one of the best things in existence.

"Well," Annabelle said. "I presume you are Yuu Kanda, Allen Walker and…Lavi?"

The Exorcists stared. How had she known their names?

"H-How did you…?" Allen asked.

"Know your names?" She finished.

The two younger Exorcists nodded.

"Well, I shall put it this way. I am on a mission as a spy, I was told to approach you once I knew that you were completely trustworthy. Nothing gets past my mistress; she knew you were coming before you yourselves even knew." She stated this coolly and with no hint of emotion in her-metallic sounding-voice.

Kanda had a curiously hard time processing this. Someone had managed to spy on them? He wondered how. They had not made it obvious who they were; they had not wished to have spies, or to let the Akuma know who they were and what they were doing.

Kanda glanced at the others. By the looks on their faces, they were going through the same thought process as he was. Luckily, the Cross girl seemed to catch on. Blushing, she began to explain.

"Well, it wasn't really that _difficult _to begin with. All I really had to do was tell the ticket inspector I was looking for three men who didn't go on about anything much and didn't draw attention to themselves. He immediately told me which cabin you were located in, and after that it was just a case of listening at doors and keeping a close eye on you when you left to make sure you were trustworthy." She told her tale in a matter-of-fact way.

---

Kanda followed his colleagues-if he could call them that-off the boat, secretly thankful to be back on land. He waited with them for Annabelle, who had promised to take them back with her to retrieve the Innocence. But Kanda did not think they should trust someone so willingly, simply because she had told them who she was. She could be an Assassin, or a Noah, or a new enemy of some sorts. This, too, tells us a lot about Kanda's personality; He does not trust easily, and he has a natural dislike of unpredictable and unreliable forces, which, overall, makes him seem very suspicious.

Annabelle stepped off the boat and walked inconspicuously towards the Exorcist trio. Kanda had to admit, she did a better job than they had, drawing no attention whatsoever due to the fact she greeted the villagers, making her blend immediately into this Australian background.

And, now that Kanda was no longer queasy, he found it easier to look at his surroundings. He immediately noticed that it _did _look quite Australian, and, although the more humorous part of his brain had kind of expected to see people with pet kangaroos, he could tell which continent he was on just by the slang people used and the red dust clinging to the boots of some.

Annabelle walked past them a little ways, and then pretended she had trodden in something.

"Eurgh!" Came the exclamation from behind Kanda. "_This way. Follow me. Act it up._"

Lavi was a natural at "acting it up". He put on a confused face, looking around as though disoriented, and then turning towards the retreating Annabelle.

"I think it's this way, guys!" He said rather loudly.

Lavi was not, however, very good at being inconspicuous. It probably would have helped if his hair wasn't the same colour as the dirt, and if Kanda didn't look so obviously foreign.

The Japanese man followed the loudly speculating redhead and the quiet pale-haired teen. On the way, Annabelle made many covered-up attempts to check how far behind they were. Once, she pretended to be talking to a butcher, another time she bumped into someone and pretended to drop something.

The odd-looking trio managed to follow her up a cobble stoned road and eventually came to a road which was red, like a river of blood. Kanda soon found out that the city of Adelaide-for that was where they were-had many mismatched streets. Some more like those you would find in the desert, and some exactly like those of England. It also didn't rain much, by the looks of it, because the dirt clinging to the buildings seemed to never have been washed off. Not like England, where it rained in summer and autumn, and then snowed in winter, giving way to more rain in spring. Kanda also reminded himself that the seasons were reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, so that where the three Exorcists had left to a particularly cold autumn, it was spring here.

Finally, Annabelle stopped in front of a rather grand-looking building. Without drawing attention to herself-something Lavi should aspire to, the samurai thought-she signalled that this was the correct building, and entered it.

Kanda looked up, suddenly realising how immense the building was. Lavi sauntered up to the door, and the raven-haired and white-haired Exorcists followed him.

"_The Holy Cross Institute for Foundlings and Orphans_." Lavi read from the plaque in front of the door.

"There's another plaque, Lavi, hang on." Allen said, peering at a plaque with was less conspicuous. "_Headquarters for the Disciples, and home of the Directress._"

"Directress?" Lavi asked.

Finally, something which had been bothering Kanda for a while presented itself.

"'_My mistress'"_ He murmured. "Well, let's go in, then, hurry up!"

He chivvied the Usagi and Moyashi towards the door. Immediately, Kanda noticed several children in the entrance hall, talking to Annabelle. Kanda hated children.

This was going to be a long day.

____________________________________________________________________

**A/N:**

**First chapter. Around about 7 pages. Don't forget, if you have a DeviantART account, look it up, seeing as I upload the chapters to dA more quickly than to .**


	3. Of Moved Emotions and Mental Slaps

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

Chapter Two-Of Moved Emotions and Mental Slaps.

Kanda's mission to Australia had been stranger than any other mission. Thus far, it had involved seasickness, spies and walks through strange cities. Frankly, Kanda missed the good old save-people-from-Akuma-take-Innocence-kill-more-Akuma strategy. Much more so because he was starting to think they'd made a mistake, and there was another Innocence wielder on the other side of the continent being mauled by Akuma. But, nevertheless, he waited obediently as Annabelle fetched Jessica.

Kanda knew there was something about this place. Something about it made him feel lonely, as it did to the two beside him, Kanda noticed. He wondered what it was that made him like this. He was saved a lot of time in working this out, however, when Lavi spoke, and if Kanda had not seen the redheads lips move and his eyes sparkle, he would've thought he'd found an Akuma at last.

"That…music…what is it?" the Bookman spoke softly and curiously.

What music? Kanda thought to himself. Was the Usagi so immersed in memories that he could hear music?

But then Kanda properly heard it, and he understood why he had not noticed it before now. It blended into the background so splendidly that it was not noticeable until you closed your eyes. It was strangely compelling, saddening music. It blended into the background, yet it made the listener feel such emotion. There was no doubt; it simply had to be Innocence. There was no other way someone could pour such undiluted emotion into something so simple.

But then it stopped altogether. It was similar to those curious moments where you don't realise something strange is happening until it abruptly stopped. But maybe the player had just finished, and they were about to play another song. Kanda hoped this was the case, because the music was so beautiful and curious that he wanted to listen to it forever.

---

Allen noticed the music the moment he stepped into the entrance hall. It was beautiful, and it had such emotion. He was immediately reminded of teardrops, full moons, and rain. It was so emotionally moving that he thought the others must've heard it-how could they not?

Allen was caught off guard when he suddenly thought of something. This could be an Akuma's weapon, to make its enemy so emotionally moved that they would not notice when it went in for the kill. It was possible, of course, because the music definitely sounded otherworldly, like Innocence, maybe, but it could also be an Akuma.

Allen slipped from his reverie when Lavi spoke, his voice soft and curious.

"That…music…what is it?" Allen's best friend whispered, his eyes sparkling.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then.

"I don't know," Allen heard himself speak, in that same soft tone. "But whatever it is, it's dreadful."*

Neither of the others had to ask what he meant by that word. Allen wasn't even sure Kanda had been listening, he was so spaced out. But Allen knew the samurai had been absorbed in the music when he started slightly as it ended.

---

Jessica had a feeling of foreboding today. Something was going to happen, and there was nothing to say that it was going to smiles and ice cream. She was playing her favourite song, the one she had poured her very soul into, and she still played as though she were lamenting her sorrow to the world, but getting sidetracked and forgetting parts of it.

She hadn't even turned when Annabelle opened the door and told her that three Exorcists had come to retrieve her. She just gazed out of the window, over Adelaide, and played her song.

Eventually, though, she finished. She could feel the tension left in the air.

"All right, then. Let's go." She murmured unwillingly.

When Jessica reached the bottom of the stairs she focussed all of her attention on the three men before her. The first wore a headband over his red hair, with an eye patch and scarf. The second looked to be about 15, with snowy hair and a mark over his left eye which began at a star at his forehead, ending on his cheek. The third intrigued Jessica, she couldn't tear her eyes away from his flowing raven hair, his indigo eyes were wary, but gave away his curiosity when they scanned her face. His face seemed to be quite stoic, but Jessica could sense an air of irritableness around his whole being.

Jessica's feeling of foreboding was heightened somewhat when the snowy haired Exorcist held his hand out to her and looked her straight in the eye with his chrome pair.

"Good Afternoon, my name is Allen Walker. This is Yuu Kanda-who prefers to be known be his surname only-and Lavi." His eyes bored into hers as she shook his hand warily.

Immediately, Jessica knew that she had gotten herself in deeper than she wished.

---

Kanda was still slightly unfocussed due to the effects of the music, but he found himself even more emotionally unbalanced when the most beautiful girl he had laid eyes upon glided down the stairs.

He mentally slapped himself. _Don't be ridiculous. _He chastised himself. _She's hardly prettier than Lenalee. And even then_, _Lenalee's merely _pretty. _I don't know why you've suddenly lost your composure and calm just because some girl entered the room. You're shameless, Yuu._

She was still standing there, why was she still silent? Her eyes were scanning the features of the others faces. _Ah, _Kanda thought, _she's inspecting her new associates. _ Her eyes wandered to Kanda's face, and he scanned hers in kind. She seemed to be quit taken aback by him. Kanda wondered why his heart suddenly hurt. He wondered if he even had a heart. He attempted to disguise his awe with curiosity, and felt the heat leaving his cheeks.

Kanda was dimly aware of Allen introducing the Exorcist trio, holding out a hand in his gentlemanly way. Kanda snapped back to full attention when he heard the girl introduce herself in kind. Her voice was mellow; it matched perfectly with the music from before.

But, as they set off for the boat back to England, Kanda silently agreed with something Lavi had commented on before; they made the girls better in Australia.

---

* Dreadful in a different way, not horrid, he means played as though full of dread; dreadful.

**A/N: Love it? Hate it? Tips? Suggestions? Thoughts on how they're gonna get from Adelaide back to London and kick some Akuma arse on the way? Random sentences in text speak? It's all welcome!**


	4. Tenacity

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Three-Tenacity**

Allen was concerned. He and Lavi had been talking like idiots for ten minutes and Kanda had not made any attempt to threaten them so far, neither had Jessica tried to join in. The white haired teen attempted to make conversation with her.

"Hey, Jessica!" He said, and was surprised when the girl turned to him, smiling. "What's your favourite food?"

The girl stared at him for a moment, and Allen regretted that he hadn't thought of something more interesting.

"Blackberries." She said eventually.

"W-What? Blackberries?" Lavi sputtered behind his best friend.

"Mm-hm." She said, gazing back out over the glistening harbour.

Allen felt slightly defeated. Luckily, Lavi managed to reboot the conversation.

"_Why?_" Asked the redhead.

"Oh, nothing great, really. But probably because they can be sweet or bitter, and you can never tell from the outside, you have to taste them to find out." She grinned, facing the two, and Allen realised that she was very pretty, really, once she smiled.

"Well, my favourite food is-" started Allen.

"Mitarashi Dango." Lavi gestured to his best friend. "He can eat three tons of it in one go."

To the surprise of all three Exorcists, Jessica laughed.

---

Kanda was thankful that he was sharing the cabin with another sensible person on his second trip on a boat. The fact that he no longer had to listen to Lavi and Allen _every _hour of the day made him less queasy. Although the fact that he had to share a room with the person who made him anxious, nervous and confused wasn't a help either. But at least he could ponder in silence. Kanda's mood lightened further when he learned that the other's cabin was not next to theirs as he had previously thought, but down the "hall" quite a ways.

Kanda then proceeded to send the next ten minutes being subconsciously pleased with himself. He was sharing a room with a pretty-_what? _Kanda thought-Australian girl and the idiot duo were down the hall; i.e. unable to contact him in any way.

Kanda shook his head forcefully, hoping to dislodge the undoubtedly lecherous, Lavi-like and out-of-character thoughts. _What was he thinking?! _

Kanda was at a stage of pondering where he wasn't sure _what _he was thinking. He was completely unlike himself. Not threatening the other two Exorcists, thinking about _girls, _and being completely and utterly flummoxed when a particular girl laughed-or even smiled.

Kanda jumped a foot in the air when he realised he was being watched by concerned eyes.

"K-Kanda, are you ok?" Jessica asked.

Kanda's felt his cheeks redden slightly in a self-conscious way, when he realised he wasn't wearing a shirt and his hair was loose.

---

Jessica slipped her coat off and loosened her hair, humming softly to herself in the perpetual silence. Her stomach growled loudly and she jumped. She had not eaten since yesterday afternoon. She swiftly decided to head down to the galley to investigate a small snack. Jessica decided she would ask Kanda if he wanted to come too.

Upon putting her head around Kanda's bedroom door, though, Jessica could see him sitting on his bed, seeming to be deep in thought. She watched him for almost a minute, watching curiously as Kanda vigorously shook his head, then jumped violently as he realised she was there.

"K-Kanda, are you ok?" She asked anxiously, trying her best to sound calm.

Jessica stared as Kanda's cheeks reddened and he moved into a self-conscious position. It was only at this point that Jessica properly realised that she should be properly embarrassed. Kanda was shirtless and his hair was loose, which in his country of origin was no doubt a shameful position to be in unless fighting.

There was a long and awkward silence as each party avoided the others eyes.

"So, what did you actually want?" Kanda finally asked, rather irritably.

Jessica stared confusedly.

"I-I was hungry, so I was going to go and see if there was any food in the galley, and I was wondering if-" Jessica paused awkwardly.

"If I wanted to come too?" Kanda supplied.

Jessica nodded. For some reason, the whole situation was so embarrassing that she was hesitant to speak, in case her voice quavered.

The samurai stared at her for a moment, before turning.

"Actually, I'm not hungry right now." Kanda grunted.

"O-Ok, then." Jessica paused. "But you're sure you're ok? Only you look worried."

"I assure you, I am perfectly stable!" Kanda growled.

Jessica turned on her heel and set off for the galley. Christ in heaven, she was hungry.

But still, Kanda's outburst had concerned her. She genuinely hoped that he was ok.

---

**A/N: Sorry for short chapter. It would have been longer, only I was pottering about with my friends from 9 am to 4 pm, and then I had stuff to do.**

**Review, please! **

**Oh yeah, also thanks to "skitter" for reviewing me!**


	5. The Everlasting Spiral of Confusion

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Four-The Everlasting Spiral of Confusion**

Amazingly, Jessica lost her appetite as soon as she walked into the galley. Allen was at the far end of it, eating what seemed to be a whole months worth of food, with Lavi beside him, looking simultaneously sick and amused. Her stomach was aching now, but not with hunger pains. She turned to leave, but was soon spotted by Lavi, who seemed to take her presence as a saviour, and called her over rather desperately.

"Jessica! Jeeeesssiiiicaaaaa!" He elongated each vowel in an attempt to get her attention.

Every eye in the room was now pointed at her face. She hated being called over at any time or place, and she was feeling her irritability rising, as it would from now on when she was around Lavi, no doubt.

Suddenly, a strong arm grabbed hers, and she was most surprised to find Lavi dragging her towards Allen, a fake smile plastered on his face, chattering loudly at the top of his voice. The look in his eyes told Jessica that her musings were correct; she was about to attempt to save both his and her own appetite. Lavi pulled her onto a bench beside him, both of them facing the other teen. Allen's face was hilarious-once Jessica looked back on it, anyway- he seemed to have stopped eating mid-gobble, and there was half a pig in his mouth. His eyes blinked at her in surprise as he seemed to process the picture in front of him.

"Er…Hi, Allen." Jessica said hesitantly. "I guess Lavi was right when he said you could eat three tons of food."

Allen continued to stare at her, making Jessica feel like a failure. Eventually, though, Allen swallowed his food and grinned at the blonde girl across from him.

"Hi, Jessie! This is a really great lunch, huh?" Allen was grinning like a child.

Both older teens stared at him.

"Allen, its dinnertime." Lavi said, in his best you're-an-idiot-but-I'll-be-patient voice.

Allen's mouth made a wide cartoon "O" shape.

"Wait, _Jessie?_" She asked, completely perplexed at the use of her shortened name.

"It's easier to say Jessie than Jessica. Besides, I'm hungry, so everything's simplified." Allen obviously thought this was a plausible excuse.

"_Boys_," Jessica scoffed. "You really are all the same."

Both boys exchanged confused glances but made no comments.

"So, Allen. _Don't you think it's rude to eat like that?_" Jessica was actually deeply insulted by the younger boy eating like an animal.

"No…Why would I?" Allen asked.

Jessica was shocked. She turned to Lavi for ideas. He made a few "go on." gestures.

"Because, it's disgusting, it makes everyone in the room feel sick, and it's giving Exorcists a bad name." Jessica ticked each of the three reasons off on her fingers for emphasis.

Lavi nodded eagerly next to her.

"And besides, it's extremely bad etiquette. Just because you can kill Akuma doesn't mean you're above everyone else's rules, Allen." Jessica finished.

Allen pretended to think it over, and Jessica could sense what the answer was before it came.

"But no one's ever complained that it makes them feel sick before now." His eyebrows furrowed. "And it doesn't really give us a bad name. _And besides that _no Exorcist was ever trained in etiquette, so they won't notice or care about it."

He went back to eating. Jessica and Lavi sweat dropped.

"I think we just failed." Lavi speculated.

"Thankyou, Sherlock." Jessica replied sarcastically.

Lavi stood up and stretched.

"Well, I'm actually pretty full and tired. I reckon I'll be going now." He said.

"You've actually eaten? With this idiot near you?" Jessica was deeply impressed.

"Well, yeah, you've just gotta sneak some of his food, turn away, block your ears, and then eat it before someone sees you." Lavi shrugged.

---

Forty-five minutes later, Jessica was sitting on the couch in Lavi and Allen's cabin. She had no idea why she was here, but Lavi had grabbed her on her way to the cabin that she shared with Kanda. Lavi sat across from her on one of the vomit-coloured armchairs with a rather smug expression on his face.

"_For the last time, _Lavi. _What in God's name do you want?!_" Jessica said irritably.

It looked like she'd been wrong before, she wasn't more irritable around Lavi, she wanted to _kill _Lavi. She glared her deadliest glare.

All through the glaring and the interrogating, Lavi's grin widened noticeably.

"I just wanted to talk to you, Jessie-_chan_." Lavi said.

Jessica could feel her eye twitching. She positively _hated _Lavi as of now. Probably because he had grabbed and dragged her because he wanted to have a _conversation._

She could feel her life getting worse already.

---

Kanda made a mental promise to be cold and stoic towards Jessica. He could not let himself get too friendly, or she might do something overly flustering and send him into a spiral of confusion. And besides, his _pride_ was at stake, if the Moyashi or Usagi noticed that he wasn't so cold towards her, they might ask questions. He nodded to himself. That's what he would do; he'd pretend she was one of the other Exorcists. It would work perfectly, because _he'd _thought of it.

He slipped on his shirt and tied his hair up. He glanced at the crappy alarm clock on the table. Seven O'clock. He had no urge to have any food at all; he hadn't been lying when he told Jessica that he wasn't hungry.

He sighed and sat back on the bed. There was nothing else to do here, really. Kanda groaned as he thought of how behind in his fighting he'd get if he didn't practice while he was stuck on the boat-which happened to be a good two months. He subconsciously crossed his legs as he closed his eyes and began to clear his thoughts. The annoying thing was, though, that ever since he had heard the music, it had been playing in the back of his mind, which meant that as soon as he started meditating, all he could hear was the music, which didn't really help him clear his thoughts.

**

After about an hour and a half, Kanda could hear footsteps coming up the hall, and the sounds of distinct bickering. No doubt it was Lavi, but who was he arguing with. The footsteps grew louder and Kanda could hear the voices more distinctly now. It _sounded _like Jessica, but he couldn't hear what they were saying, so he had no idea why she and Lavi would be fighting. _Not that I'm interested. _He hastily masked his thoughts. _But if they bicker and annoy me, I might just have to kill them. _Eventually, Jessica opened the door, said a last "Go Away." To Lavi and stepped into her bedroom.

The silence that followed was-for reasons unknown- slightly unbearable. The music in Kanda's head was heightened, reminding hm of its presence. A few minutes later, Jessica left her own room and sat on the couch. Kanda heard the flicking of pages, and presumed she must be reading one of those history books he'd seen before.

Except that he didn't care. She was just going to be another hindering Exorcist.

---

The silence was unbearable. Until today, there had been music-her music- playing in the back of her mind, but now there was nothing. She had been noticing it all day, but her mind had always been occupied again once she started to wonder why. Now, however, there were no distractions, no disturbances, there was no way she could just brush it off, saying it was because she had proper friends, or because she was leaving the orphanage. There was no answer, either, not like earlier. Her mind worked at full speed, looking for evidence that it might be ok. But there was nothing. She was becoming increasingly more anxious. The music had comforted her, had run finely with her emotions. When she'd asked the doctor, even, he had said it had been part of her _operation, _that it was a side effect, and that there was nothing at all to have any fears about.

She heard a sob, echoing around the room, and jumped, looking about. There was nothing there…did that mean…was this an Akuma? Her worries were heightened. She couldn't hear the music, _her_ music, and there was a possibility of Akuma activity in the area. Something clicked, _was the fact that the music had stopped a sign that there was an Akuma here, and therefore that she was going to die? _

Her hand flew to her cheek instinctively, and she could feel something wet there; tear tracks. She had been crying, so the sob must have been…_her? _

"Great…" She murmured to herself. "There's no music, so I immediately get all jumpy and paranoid."

But, there was perfectly good reason that she was jumpy and paranoid, _her music had stopped_. It had been her lifeline, her soul, it had calmed her down. More than that, it had matched her eyes-both of them-and ran smoothly with her hands when she played piano.

Speaking of which, she hadn't seen them all day, her hands or both of her eyes, they might have changed when the music had stopped. She stood up and stepped into the bathroom, immediately turning to face the mirror. She slowly pulled back the hair that hung over her left eye and pinned it behind her ear.

On the left side of her face was a metallic mask-looking object. It covered the area from the bridge of her nose to just before her ear-excluding her eye, of course. It went down from a spot a few millimetres below hr hairline, on one edge it ended a few millimetres away-but as long as-the bottom of her ear, but on the other edge it ended just above the sides of her nostrils, and went diagonally from there to the other edge. The whole thing looked as though made of iron, with a copper-gold trim, but in actual fact as made of a much stronger metal than that. Along the longest side was a column of copper-gold buttons, all of which had different functions. However, apart from the fact that the periwinkle eye behind it looked anxious, there was nothing actually wrong with it, from the outside at least.

She pulled the pin from her hair and let it hide the left side of her face again. She unbuttoned her gloves and slid them off. Holding them in front of her face, she scanned them quickly. Her whole hands were made of metal. The bones, muscles, tendons, and artificial nerves were all visible with the naked eye. Her hands were made out of exactly the same metal as her face. But, like her face, there was nothing at all wrong with them. She curled and flexed her fingers experimentally.

Jessica had gained both her artificial hands and the left face covering seven years ago, after the fire at the orphanage. She had been one of the twelve critically injured children who had disappeared. They had not, however, been murdered or tortured. They had been operated on, their burnt limbs or skin replaced, in an experiment run by The Church. As the surgeons and doctors had explained about her face, and that her eye might be partially damaged, The Church had leapt at the idea of operating on her brain, too, so they had installed a small largish kind of computer chip in her brain-extremely similar to the technology behind the Black Order's golems-which had allowed her to use her "eye" as a weapon. Her hands, too had been replaced with synthetic and artificial materials, and they had reinforced the more breakable bones with the same metals they had put into her wrists.

This operation had been performed on each of the other children too, and they became servants to The Church, working under the woman who had called herself "The Directress". They had become like soldiers, ranked from first to twelfth depending on their power. They had been trained as lords and ladies to be respectable and well mannered, as well as trained in combat of all sorts, the performing arts, and in acting-so that they could go undetected when they wished. Their name had been "The Disciples".

Jessica was subjected to a particularly rude awakening when one raven-haired Japanese samurai named Kanda Yuu opened the door.

---

**A/N: **

**Tips? Hints? Help? Flames? Corrections? It's all welcome!**

**Thanks to "skitter", "Hibari-chi" and "Domo Arigato san" for reviewing last time!**

**Review, please. It feels like no one is reading it. T.T**


	6. Spitfire

8

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Six-Atmospheric Proportions**

Jessica was hiding from Lavi. He had been attempting to talk to her all day. This would not do, of course, seeing as Lavi was prone to being mentally retarded when in the company of any female whatsoever-even female dust mites weren't safe. Jessica pitied the rest of the females who were in the Black Order; they were probably sexually harassed on a daily basis.

At the end of her aimless wandering/fleeing Lavi, Jessica ended up on the top deck of the ship. She could tell they were getting closer to England, because it was overcast and cold, and she thought she could see a large England-shaped rain cloud about fifty miles ahead.

There was nobody up on deck with her. Jessica loved being alone, it was one of the few things that made her happy again when she'd been fighting with someone or being "difficult". She walked to the extreme front of the boat-she couldn't remember the correct terminology-and leaned against the railing.

The sensation was quite odd. The wind was rushing through her hair, spray was crashing onto her face, she could feel her heart pumping, but it wasn't exhilaration, it was something different. More like…dread? No...It was like…it was impossible to pinpoint…it was almost as if it took every single emotion and concocted a completely new feeling. Jessica felt every emotion from the past few months come down upon her, all of the emotions she had shunted to one side because something was happening. Sadness, Anger, Loneliness, Anxiety, Hatred, Love, Happiness, Dread…wait…_Love? _What? Jessica sighed; she supposed that it was love for her "family", not for anyone else.

A great feeling of foreboding was washing over her, something bad was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, she couldn't quite get the precise feeling of the foreboding? Was it about that Large storm cloud in the distance, or was it because there were suddenly a lot more people on the top deck? Jessica decided that they were the same sense really; they were probably even related incidents. There was something about the storm cloud though, it was darker than usual, and moving more quickly. Jessica didn't think it was any ordinary Cirrus Spissatus*.

---

Lavi had finally spotted Jessica. She was standing at the bow of the boat, and seemed to be watching a rather large storm cloud-Cirrus Kelvin-Helmholtz**, if he was not mistaken. Lavi nudged Allen, who was watching someone eat food with a hungry look in his eye. The white-haired teen nodded, and both Exorcists moved towards the blonde girl inconspicuously.

Even from behind, Jessica was visibly troubled. Lavi brushed this off as his friend being homesick, so as to have a clear conscience when he scared her. He crept up behind her, the plan already formed in his mind. He was going to laugh like an Akuma and jump on her. He glanced at Allen, who looked slightly uneasy. He stepped behind her, as close as he could get without being detected, and started to make as many Akuma like sounds as he could think of.

"Good Afternoon, Lavi." Jessica said.

Lavi jumped and landed on Allen.

"Ah, I'm pretty sure paedophilia is against International Law, Lavi." Jessica's stoic voice floated from behind him.

Lavi looked at himself. It did, indeed, look like he was fucking Allen. They had already attracted horrified stares from the other people on the deck.

"Sh-Shut the hell up!" He said as he jumped off Allen, his cheeks as red as the sunset.

"Oh, shush, Lavi, I was only joking around." Jessica rolled her eyes. "But, can't you sense that?"

"Sense what? That foreboding in the air?" Allen asked.

"No! Well, that's part of it, I guess. But can't you sense the Akuma? The air is thick with them! And that cloud doesn't look normal!" She pointed a long finger at the cloud, which, indeed, was starting to look quite strange.

"There's no Akuma, Jess, my eye's not reacting." Allen said, as though explaining that one plus one equals two.

"Yeah, I know. But maybe they've rigged it somehow, made it so your eye doesn't work, so as to ambush us. It wouldn't surprise me." Jessica said.

"Jessica, you're reading into this too much. It's as simple as this; if Allen's eye doesn't go off, there's no Akuma." Lavi was confident about this.

Then, a familiar voice came from behind them.

"You're all idiots."

Lavi turned to find Kanda standing behind them, his Innocence activated. Lavi felt as though he was missing something. He glanced towards the cloud; it was now visibly made of Akuma.

"Ah." Lavi sighed. "It looks like Jessica was right."

"Uh-huh." Jessica murmured.

"_But Yuu-chan's come to save us!_" Lavi said.

"Don't bet on it." Kanda and Jessica said together.

They looked at each other, then away again.

"I wasn't." Lavi and Allen chorused.

"Good, 'cause that means you can save _yourselves_." This was Kanda and Jessica again.

Lavi and Allen stared at the two Exorcists.

"Shut up and activate your Innocence!" Jessica said exasperatedly.

He and Allen obeyed, turning towards the enemy.

Lavi noticed Jessica searching the deck for something.

"I'm going to clear the area." She said. "We don't want any deaths, do we?"

"Not if we can help it, no." He said.

Jessica glided off, and Lavi heard her warning the other passengers from atop a crate.

"All passengers please evacuate the top deck immediately! There is a rather ferocious storm heading our way. Please do not leave any belongings on the deck, as it will be closed off as soon as everyone has left it, so as to avoid harm or otherwise of the passengers!" Jessica shouted.

Somewhere, a woman screamed.

"That man! That man has a sword! And that boy's arm!" cried the woman.

Lavi knew Jessica would be able to gloss over this, as she did.

"We believe that there are some criminals on board this ship! That man is a member of the Law Enforcement team that have been sent to catch these criminals! Please do not panic, no member of the Law Enforcement team will bring you harm. Please proceed inside the ship, and wait in your cabins until the storm has died down!" Her voice was commanding and forceful, but Lavi was surprised that no one questioned her authority.

He shrugged; maybe normal civilians had just gotten dumber than he remembered.

The crowd surged through the open doors that led inside the cabin, they scrabbled and ran in an attempt to either get away from the storm or run from the criminals Jessica had mentioned. Either way, once they were inside, Jessica closed the doors and barred them, so that no passenger would be hurt or killed as a result of their poor preparation for the fight.

---

The fight had gone rather badly. All four Exorcists were still conscious, but they were badly wounded, and Jessica was unable to heal them due to the immensity of the Akuma's numbers. Luckily, though, she wasn't a hindrance. Her skill with her guns and the other weapons she carried made her as able as Allen, although with an apparently lower "synch", as she'd heard the younger boy say.

She hadn't expected there to be so many Akuma in that cloud. There were about fifty, which was more than she'd ever fought at once. She'd been overwhelmed, at first, and ended up having to dodge a bullet. She'd spent half of her time admiring the techniques of the other Exorcists, and obviously looked crappier at fighting than she actually was.

But the next thing Jessica knew, Allen was on the ground. He'd been hit by a bullet while trying to fight three Akuma at once. But neither Lavi nor Kanda were attempting to help him.

Jessica attempted to dodge through the horde of Akuma that were trying to kill the Exorcists. She only remembered that she had abandoned her fight when a blade shot through the air, slicing off a lock of hair.

Jessica was thrown back by a sudden explosion. She landed beside Lavi, who was wearing a confused expression due to the Akuma he was fighting having exploded.

"What the bloody hell? Is there gasoline in these crates or something?" he asked bemusedly.

"Wait, who's that? There's someone over there, Lavi, trying to fight. It looks like he's fending off bout five at once." Jessica squinted, trying to peer through the smoke hanging in the air.

"Is it Kanda?" The redhead asked.

"No, it's someone with almost no experience in fighting, by the looks of it." Jessica said, as the mysterious personage flailed their arms around.

"Should we help them?" Lavi asked.

"No." Jessica said.

Lavi looked perplexed. Jessica pushed some debris off her legs.

"If they're stupid enough to fight Akuma when they have no Anti-Akuma weapons or Innocence, then I'm not going to help 'em. It's their own fault if they die." She brushed herself off.

"Jessica, you can't be that heartless." Lavi said.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, there are still Akuma that _we _have to kill! If we run around saving that wanker, they'll attack us!" Jessica nearly shouted.

There was another large _bang! _And the Exorcist duo ducked.

---

*A type of cloud that forms in extreme levels of cold and brings storms. It's grey and horizontal. Well, according to Wikipedia anyway.

** A type of cloud that is all spirally and indicates extreme turbulence in that part of the atmosphere. The cloud can be both Spissatus and Kelvin-Helmholtz, but it would more technically be called a Kelvin-Helmholtz, because there's no sun.

Sorry, I left nerd mode on. ^^;

**A/N: I was going to add on to this part, and make it a lot longer, but it would be roughly two chapters long then, so no.**

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	7. Atmospheric Proportions

8

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Six-Atmospheric Proportions**

Jessica was hiding from Lavi. He had been attempting to talk to her all day. This would not do, of course, seeing as Lavi was prone to being mentally retarded when in the company of any female whatsoever-even female dust mites weren't safe. Jessica pitied the rest of the females who were in the Black Order; they were probably sexually harassed on a daily basis.

At the end of her aimless wandering/fleeing Lavi, Jessica ended up on the top deck of the ship. She could tell they were getting closer to England, because it was overcast and cold, and she thought she could see a large England-shaped rain cloud about fifty miles ahead.

There was nobody up on deck with her. Jessica loved being alone, it was one of the few things that made her happy again when she'd been fighting with someone or being "difficult". She walked to the extreme front of the boat-she couldn't remember the correct terminology-and leaned against the railing.

The sensation was quite odd. The wind was rushing through her hair, spray was crashing onto her face, she could feel her heart pumping, but it wasn't exhilaration, it was something different. More like…dread? No...It was like…it was impossible to pinpoint…it was almost as if it took every single emotion and concocted a completely new feeling. Jessica felt every emotion from the past few months come down upon her, all of the emotions she had shunted to one side because something was happening. Sadness, Anger, Loneliness, Anxiety, Hatred, Love, Happiness, Dread…wait…_Love? _What? Jessica sighed; she supposed that it was love for her "family", not for anyone else.

A great feeling of foreboding was washing over her, something bad was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, she couldn't quite get the precise feeling of the foreboding? Was it about that Large storm cloud in the distance, or was it because there were suddenly a lot more people on the top deck? Jessica decided that they were the same sense really; they were probably even related incidents. There was something about the storm cloud though, it was darker than usual, and moving more quickly. Jessica didn't think it was any ordinary Cirrus Spissatus*.

---

Lavi had finally spotted Jessica. She was standing at the bow of the boat, and seemed to be watching a rather large storm cloud-Cirrus Kelvin-Helmholtz**, if he was not mistaken. Lavi nudged Allen, who was watching someone eat food with a hungry look in his eye. The white-haired teen nodded, and both Exorcists moved towards the blonde girl inconspicuously.

Even from behind, Jessica was visibly troubled. Lavi brushed this off as his friend being homesick, so as to have a clear conscience when he scared her. He crept up behind her, the plan already formed in his mind. He was going to laugh like an Akuma and jump on her. He glanced at Allen, who looked slightly uneasy. He stepped behind her, as close as he could get without being detected, and started to make as many Akuma like sounds as he could think of.

"Good Afternoon, Lavi." Jessica said.

Lavi jumped and landed on Allen.

"Ah, I'm pretty sure paedophilia is against International Law, Lavi." Jessica's stoic voice floated from behind him.

Lavi looked at himself. It did, indeed, look like he was fucking Allen. They had already attracted horrified stares from the other people on the deck.

"Sh-Shut the hell up!" He said as he jumped off Allen, his cheeks as red as the sunset.

"Oh, shush, Lavi, I was only joking around." Jessica rolled her eyes. "But, can't you sense that?"

"Sense what? That foreboding in the air?" Allen asked.

"No! Well, that's part of it, I guess. But can't you sense the Akuma? The air is thick with them! And that cloud doesn't look normal!" She pointed a long finger at the cloud, which, indeed, was starting to look quite strange.

"There's no Akuma, Jess, my eye's not reacting." Allen said, as though explaining that one plus one equals two.

"Yeah, I know. But maybe they've rigged it somehow, made it so your eye doesn't work, so as to ambush us. It wouldn't surprise me." Jessica said.

"Jessica, you're reading into this too much. It's as simple as this; if Allen's eye doesn't go off, there's no Akuma." Lavi was confident about this.

Then, a familiar voice came from behind them.

"You're all idiots."

Lavi turned to find Kanda standing behind them, his Innocence activated. Lavi felt as though he was missing something. He glanced towards the cloud; it was now visibly made of Akuma.

"Ah." Lavi sighed. "It looks like Jessica was right."

"Uh-huh." Jessica murmured.

"_But Yuu-chan's come to save us!_" Lavi said.

"Don't bet on it." Kanda and Jessica said together.

They looked at each other, then away again.

"I wasn't." Lavi and Allen chorused.

"Good, 'cause that means you can save _yourselves_." This was Kanda and Jessica again.

Lavi and Allen stared at the two Exorcists.

"Shut up and activate your Innocence!" Jessica said exasperatedly.

He and Allen obeyed, turning towards the enemy.

Lavi noticed Jessica searching the deck for something.

"I'm going to clear the area." She said. "We don't want any deaths, do we?"

"Not if we can help it, no." He said.

Jessica glided off, and Lavi heard her warning the other passengers from atop a crate.

"All passengers please evacuate the top deck immediately! There is a rather ferocious storm heading our way. Please do not leave any belongings on the deck, as it will be closed off as soon as everyone has left it, so as to avoid harm or otherwise of the passengers!" Jessica shouted.

Somewhere, a woman screamed.

"That man! That man has a sword! And that boy's arm!" cried the woman.

Lavi knew Jessica would be able to gloss over this, as she did.

"We believe that there are some criminals on board this ship! That man is a member of the Law Enforcement team that have been sent to catch these criminals! Please do not panic, no member of the Law Enforcement team will bring you harm. Please proceed inside the ship, and wait in your cabins until the storm has died down!" Her voice was commanding and forceful, but Lavi was surprised that no one questioned her authority.

He shrugged; maybe normal civilians had just gotten dumber than he remembered.

The crowd surged through the open doors that led inside the cabin, they scrabbled and ran in an attempt to either get away from the storm or run from the criminals Jessica had mentioned. Either way, once they were inside, Jessica closed the doors and barred them, so that no passenger would be hurt or killed as a result of their poor preparation for the fight.

---

The fight had gone rather badly. All four Exorcists were still conscious, but they were badly wounded, and Jessica was unable to heal them due to the immensity of the Akuma's numbers. Luckily, though, she wasn't a hindrance. Her skill with her guns and the other weapons she carried made her as able as Allen, although with an apparently lower "synch", as she'd heard the younger boy say.

She hadn't expected there to be so many Akuma in that cloud. There were about fifty, which was more than she'd ever fought at once. She'd been overwhelmed, at first, and ended up having to dodge a bullet. She'd spent half of her time admiring the techniques of the other Exorcists, and obviously looked crappier at fighting than she actually was.

But the next thing Jessica knew, Allen was on the ground. He'd been hit by a bullet while trying to fight three Akuma at once. But neither Lavi nor Kanda were attempting to help him.

Jessica attempted to dodge through the horde of Akuma that were trying to kill the Exorcists. She only remembered that she had abandoned her fight when a blade shot through the air, slicing off a lock of hair.

Jessica was thrown back by a sudden explosion. She landed beside Lavi, who was wearing a confused expression due to the Akuma he was fighting having exploded.

"What the bloody hell? Is there gasoline in these crates or something?" he asked bemusedly.

"Wait, who's that? There's someone over there, Lavi, trying to fight. It looks like he's fending off bout five at once." Jessica squinted, trying to peer through the smoke hanging in the air.

"Is it Kanda?" The redhead asked.

"No, it's someone with almost no experience in fighting, by the looks of it." Jessica said, as the mysterious personage flailed their arms around.

"Should we help them?" Lavi asked.

"No." Jessica said.

Lavi looked perplexed. Jessica pushed some debris off her legs.

"If they're stupid enough to fight Akuma when they have no Anti-Akuma weapons or Innocence, then I'm not going to help 'em. It's their own fault if they die." She brushed herself off.

"Jessica, you can't be that heartless." Lavi said.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, there are still Akuma that _we _have to kill! If we run around saving that wanker, they'll attack us!" Jessica nearly shouted.

There was another large _bang! _And the Exorcist duo ducked.

---

*A type of cloud that forms in extreme levels of cold and brings storms. It's grey and horizontal. Well, according to Wikipedia anyway.

** A type of cloud that is all spirally and indicates extreme turbulence in that part of the atmosphere. The cloud can be both Spissatus and Kelvin-Helmholtz, but it would more technically be called a Kelvin-Helmholtz, because there's no sun.

Sorry, I left nerd mode on. ^^;

**A/N: I was going to add on to this part, and make it a lot longer, but it would be roughly two chapters long then, so no.**

**REVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEWREVIEW **


	8. Stolen Glory

9

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Seven-Stolen Glory**

Jessica ran forward. She could see a large group of Akuma over there, gathered around what appeared to be someone's body. She hoped to God they were still alive. Even if it was Kanda, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if somebody died.

Behind her, Lavi was also running, but much more clumsily than she. He had evidently been hurt, but Jessica hadn't been able to locate the wound, so she hadn't healed it.

The two came to a halt-though Lavi slightly later than Jessica-behind the Akuma. Jessica saw the redhead raise his hammer. The slammed her hand down onto his wrist and squeezed it tightly.

"There's too many for two Exorcists to handle. If you kill these ones, you'll alert the others that we're here. Besides, if I just aim from here, I can shoot about three at once without getting killed immediately afterwards." Jessica whispered, she pointed her gun at the Akuma and pretended to aim.

Lavi nodded. He had a grave look on his face, as though it was a sacrifice to let her kill an Akuma. Jessica crept forward, getting as close to the Akuma as she could without being suicidal. She lowered herself down on her hands and knees, and slithered along through the debris. She got up to a point of being five meters from the closest Akuma, and stopped. Her plan seemed to be working more effectively than she thought. If she turned forty-five degrees to the left, she could get five out of seven of them without any trouble at all. She raised her gun and aimed at the head of the closest Akuma. There were four others standing behind it in a line. _One bullet, five dead Akuma. _She thought to herself. She pulled back the safety catch, aiming carefully.

Then, she saw the thing in the Akuma's arms. It was Allen. Another Akuma was holding Kanda. She hesitated for just a moment, and there was a huge explosion. She curled herself up, with her hands wrapped around her head. She rolled behind a broken crate. She heard the remaining Akuma from the other end of the boat running towards them. She looked up. There was someone in front of her, and it certainly wasn't Lavi. It was a guy; he seemed to have dynamite strapped around his waist.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She yelled at him. "You nearly killed four Exorcists! Four people who have much more experience than you do at killing Akuma!"

"Hm, what happened to 'thankyou'?" He asked.

"I don't thank people who nearly kill me!" She screamed. "Are you suicidal? You _must _have some sort of death wish if you're trying to fight Akuma like that!"

She aimed her gun at a grinning Akuma, pulled the trigger, and shot it clear in the face. The Akuma dissolved.

"Whoa! That was cool!" The suicide bomber yelled.

"Shut up, will you?" Lavi said, emerging from a pile of rubble.

There were five Akuma remaining. Jessica did a forward roll, just dodging what appeared to be an enormous fist. She shot a bullet towards the large Akuma, but misfired, and ended up having to dodge it herself.

Jessica could see that Lavi was having a hard time. He couldn't get the hammer big enough to kill the Akuma without destroying the boat. Jessica had no idea what the other guy was doing. Jumping around, running away and back again, flailing his arms, hiding behind things, trying to hit the Akuma. He was a complete fool, it was as though he'd merely come across the Akuma-destroying dynamite by chance.

Jessica sighed, successfully shooting an Akuma in the back and letting it dissolve. She jumped over the shoulder of her second Akuma, landing in between hers and the other Akuma. She sent a wide chain-shot at the Akuma to her left, cutting its arms off and dissolving it completely.

She heard a loud crack to her left. It was Lavi, he'd just killed his two Akuma, but he'd also broken a large crate full of what appeared to be weapons-guns to be precise. There was, however, still one Akuma left. Jessica considered letting it kill the hindrance and then blowing its brains out. But, of course, it was her duty to save as many lives as possible, even if they _were _completely suicidal and foolish. She sighed, and ran forward to shoot the Akuma, raising her gun; she pulled the trigger half-heartedly as it turned a corner. The man screamed as it dissolved.

---

The next day, Kanda woke up to find himself bandaged on his cabin bed. He sat up and glanced around. There was no one in the room, but the door was open, and he could see Jessica ripping up what appeared to be a shirt, except it was covered in blood and dirt and had cuts and slashes in it. She soaked it in a bowl of some sort and brought it into his room.

"Oh. You're awake, are you?" She said grumpily.

She pulled out the wad of shirt, which appeared to now be slimy and green, and started to sponge his stomach. He looked down, and realised there was a large wound there. He wondered why she was doing this. He wondered why he was even _hurt_, he had been fine until that explosion, and then he'd woken up here.

"Get _away._ I can do this _myself._" He snapped at the girl.

She glared at him.

"No you _can't. _Your spine was damaged, you can barely move, Kanda." She rolled her eyes.

"I _don't _need to be _nursed_!" He shouted.

"That's not your decision to make." She said.

She put the wad away and started to dab at it with a kind of patch. It was then that he realised that she was not wearing her gloves as usual. Her hands were...metallic? No, she must've been wearing silvery gloves for the task. No, that wasn't it, either. But he didn't really care, after all.

A few minutes later, she stopped, pulling her hands away from his stomach. She looked at it and sighed, then flipped her fringe back. Kanda stared at the thing behind it. It was a sort of mask...but it was obviously grafted to the flesh on her face, it was like nothing he'd ever seen before. It had buttons down the side. She turned to face him, and he could see her blue eye staring out from behind the glass.

"_Don't _tell anyone else about this please." Her voice was so serious that Kanda was forced to nod. "It's my secret weapon."

She ran her hand down the brass buttons absentmindedly. She pressed the second from the top, almost as though by accident. Kanda heard a kind of clicking sound, and a pale blue filter covered in a strange pattern was shoved over Jessica's eye. He watched as a beam the same colour travelled out and formed a grid on his stomach. The light began to pulse slightly, and Kanda could feel the large whole healing itself, watched as the skin knitted itself together and formed a smooth pink mark on his stomach. The beam shot back inside and the filter flitted away.

---

Jessica went down to the galley later that day to get food for Kanda-he still couldn't really walk-and herself. When she got there, she was virtually attacked by passengers. They claimed that she had _helped _to get rid of the "monsters". In actual fact, she had done fifty percent of the work, she told them.

She continued to walk through the galley in an orderly manner, but she forced herself to stop when she saw the man from the previous night. He happened to be surrounded by a whole gaggle of girls, and she could hear him talking about the previous evening very loudly and in fully exaggerated detail. Jessica was sure she heard him say that they'd all been knocked out except for him, and he'd saved the entire ship from death. She marched towards him.

"What the _hell _do you think you're doing, you stupid _tosser_?" She yelled.

"I'm telling then exactly what happened last night." He said, grinning.

"No you're not." She faced the girls. "What happened last night is this: He managed to get himself on to the deck, set off an explosion that nearly killed me and my colleagues, set off another explosion and nearly killed _himself_, then he tried to fight an Akuma-which didn't work 'cause it looked like he was doing an angry monkey impression-and me and another Exorcist had to save him."

They stared.

"The people you should be listening to are _me _and _Lavi_, not this fuckwit." She yelled at the surrounding people.

She strode off and ordered the food for herself and Kanda. As she walked past the group, they barraged her.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" One man asked. "Aren't you going to tell us what really happened?!"

"No, I a _not_. I'm taking food up to my critically injured colleague. If you're so dumb that you believe him, you don't _deserve _the true story." She snapped, balancing the two bowls above her head.

She climbed the stairs and walked long the hallway. She came to the door that belonged to her and Kanda, and wrenched it open.

Sitting inside, being sworn at, were Allen and Lavi. They had apparently come to see how Kanda was doing.

"What are you doing here, Allen, Lavi?" She asked, puzzled as to why they would wish to see the person who wishes death upon them.

"We came to find you, but Yuu-chan told us you'd gone to get food." Lavi said, ducking the crappy alarm clock that sailed through Kanda's door.

"How long have you been here?" She asked.

"Five minutes." Lavi glanced at the alarm clock. "But time flies when Yuu-chan's threatening you."

She sighed and went into Kanda's room, setting the bowl of soba noodles on the table. Kanda looked at her grumpily, and she made a "hmph" expression in return, striding out of the room to talk to Lavi and Allen.

---

One week later, all three Exorcists stepped-or limped, in Lavi's case-off the ship and onto the London docks. Jessica looked around animatedly, she'd never been in a harbour this big before, _and_ _right on the Thames!_ Her blue eye was wide and sparkling. Lavi nudged her.

"This way, Jessie-chan." He gestured to the right with his head.

She nodded and followed the three black coats towards a black carriage. For a moment Jessica thought it was a hearse, but the three stepped inside it without a moments thought. Jessica followed, and was rewarded with the soft, comfortable seats and highly polished interior. As soon as she closed the door and sat down next to Kanda-she had little choice, due to the limited seat space-the carriage wa off through London, and she stared out the window like a child, looking at all the people, there were so many people, and the city itself was extremely large, bigger than Sydney Town!

---

Lavi watched with an amused expression on his face as Jessica leaned right up near the glass and watched the complex of London working. It was certainly much more impressive than the place where she had lived, that was for sure, and much bigger than their current capital, if he remembered correctly.

Across from him, Kanda made a "che." noise and looked out of the other window.

Lavi saw Allen open his mouth, his eyes on Jessica, but Lavi nudged him, shaking his head and grinning uncontrollably. Allen nodded, and watched the passing surroundings as well. By the next ten minutes, the whole carriage resembled a sightseeing vehicle, with all of its occupants watching the Londoners do their work.

---

**A/N: This is the last chapter in the Australia to Britain story arc. Also the last chapter to be uploaded daily. After this, all chapters will be uploaded three times a week. I'm going back to school after the term holidays. Second Term here I come!**

**Review please! They give me inspiration and they help Kanda to stop being an asshat!**


	9. Bleak Horizons

8

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Eight-Bleak Horizons**

Jessica had been rather impressed when she saw the Headquarters of the Black Order. But upon seeing the inside, she was still impressed, sure, but it was for different reasons. First, she was impressed that a science department could simultaneously look like a filing room belonging to an extremely lazy and enthusiastic monster and a slave headquarters. Second, she was impressed that so many mentally unstable people could stay in a single building without imploding it.

She tuned back in to Komui's lecture. He had commenced talking about what an Exorcist was ten minutes ago. Jessica did not need this, Lavi had told her more about the Black Order than she'd originally wanted to know.

Komui gestured to his right and said something about "Hevlaska". Jessica followed him into a large room. It wasn't just large, in fact it was _enormous. _There was a sort of large platform with railing along the edges, which she followed Komui onto. She heard a small greeting from behind her, and jumped around to see the other three Exorcists standing there. She hadn't realised they had been following her, she thought they would've gone to their own rooms.

She turned back around and jumped out of her skin. She'd discovered who Allen had been greeting. There was a giant..._thing_ standing in front of the platform, and it hadn't been there before. It seemed to have hands-which were more like tentacles than anything-and a face, but otherwise it was sort of like a snake. _Hevlaska. _She decided. Hevlaska looked at her. Well, not really, but faced her.

"So this is our new Exorcist?" She asked. Her voice was deep, in a curious way.

"Y-Yes." Jessica stuttered and nodded, feeling the question was directed at her.

The tentacle-like things shot up and around her body, pulling her towards the snakelike body of Hevlaska. Jessica made no sound, except for a small gasping noise when she had been grabbed. She had encountered a similar phenomenon in Northern France a few years ago.

"It seems to be a parasite type." Hevlaska said as the small sucker things on the ends of her tentacles grafted onto her skin.

"Gah!" Jessica exclaimed. "P-Parasite type? I thought it was E-Equipment Type?!"

Hevlaska remained silent. Jessica worked on getting her heart rate back to normal. She listened to her calm breathing for a moment, then;

"Your synchronisation rate is very low." Hevlaska told the room.

Jessica did not respond. She was holding her breath to find out what her Innocence was, if it was not her guns. A few minutes passed where nobody spoke at all, Hevlaska merely examined her Innocence. Once no one made a sound, someone started to tap quiet rhythms with their boot, and, though Jessica could not see him, she was sure that Lavi was responsible for providing her with a distraction from her impending confusion.

Ten more minutes passed quickly, they did not want to hang around for too long.

The silence was broken by Kanda muttering "_Isogimasu*_..."and Lavi giving him a reproachful look. Jessica smiled subconsciously; she was extremely confused by her own sudden fondness for Kanda's attitude. But she shrugged it off as she sensed Hevlaska come to a conclusion.

"Her Innocence is definitely Parasite Type, no matter what she claims, Komui." She said, speaking to the beret-topped man.

"And what is her Innocence's ability?" He asked.

Hevlaska paused for a moment.

"She is able to transfer her Innocence into any object to transform it into an Anti-Akuma weapon." She said. Lavi and Allen exchanged looks of shock.

"Really? What happens to her Innocence once this has happened?" Komui looked genuinely curious.

"It seems she is able to control it and withdraw it at will." Hevlaska whispered.

Jessica almost exclaimed, but she held her tongue. She couldn't make a disgrace of herself just because of a shock. That was an extremely useful and awesome ability she had. She immersed herself in a brief fantasy which involved killing Akuma with metal piping. When she emerged from it, she realised she was being lowered. She was dropped onto the ground, landing on her behind. She stood up slowly, seeing as she had a track record of being clumsy when overwhelmed.

"There's something else you should know, Supervisor." Hevlaska said.

Jessica gulped. She had been hoping this wouldn't come up.

"Her bones are reinforced with an unknown metal, and it may interfere with her parasitic Innocence." Hevlaska said. Jessica recognised the business-like tone.

"I see..." Komui murmured. "Thankyou, Hevlaska, but if it hasn't done so far, I do not see any danger."

Hevlaska regarded her in a calm way.

"I never said anything about it not having done so, Supervisor." She said.

Komui nodded, and gestured to the four Exorcists that they should continue this somewhere else.

"Supervisor Komui, you won't be able to take that metal out. It's designed to permanently attach itself to any surface it is poured onto, and it is immensely strong, nothing has properly broken it yet." She said once they'd exited Hevlaska's room.

"I must ask you, Jessica, what type of metal is it? It seems that you know the basics of it." He looked at her quizzically.

Jessica hesitated, opened her mouth, and closed it again. She could tell that the four men in front of her were waiting for an answer. She glanced at the ceiling, fiddling with a hole near the bottom of her waistcoat. She opened her mouth again, but no sound came out. They watched her.

"I...I don't know very much." She admitted. "All I've really been told is that it is reserved for the creating of robotic limbs only and it's a special metal. Apparently it's illegal to use it on any object besides the human body or on certain animals."

The white-clothed man pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Do you know which animals they are?" He asked.

"Er...I know that Canine, Feline and Ursine species are included in there, but I'm not sure about the others." She told him.

"I thought so." He said.

"Wait, what?" Lavi said, as Komui walked down the hallway. "What is it?"

The older man sighed.

"It is a metal named Infragillium†. It is, just as Jessica says, completely unbreakable." Komui said. "But that is irrelevant. What matters at the moment is that I need to tell the four of you something."

Jessica stared at the man, trying to detect any trace of humour on his face. Apparently, he was not joking, he was actually that changeable. She found it extremely off-putting when he suddenly grinned, and could almost read the thought before it came to his lips.

"Due to an explosion in Lavi's room, which spread into Allen and Kanda's rooms, the three of you now have nowhere to sleep, and we do not have spare rooms to accommodate you in!" He faced the three male Exorcists, who currently looked like particularly gormless fish. "So, you will be staying in Jessica's room until your rooms are repaired!"

Jessica could not believe her ears. Even though she knew what was coming, it did not make it any less shocking. She would have to share a room with _three guys _for an indefinite amount of time. Sharing a cabin with _one _guy for six weeks had been annoying enough, and that was with a guy who got up at sunrise and spent eighty percent of his time being grumpy (The other twenty percent was being murderous and slightly agreeable). God knows how she would manage with guys who slept in and spent eighty percent of their time being annoying.

"W-What?!" She spluttered, unknowing that the rest had already ceased their arguments and resorted to being merely stunned. "That is ridiculous! Surely there are other male Exorcists they could share rooms with?! I mean, there are _eleven _of you altogether!"

"No." Komui said, his grin widening. "Marie and Crowley cannot share their rooms. None of the Generals will share a room with their apprentices, although I _did _have to restrain General Tiedoll at the thought of sharing a room with Kanda." He concluded thoughtfully.

Kana twitched involuntarily. Allen nodded slightly, in agreement to Kanda's obvious discomfort. Komui's grin of madness metamorphosed into a stern glare.

"That, however, is my final word. I will not be listening to further arguments. The four of you will share a room until further notice." He pushed his glasses up his nose and walked through the door to his office.

Jessica continued to glare at the spot Komui's head had been at a few moments before. She was sure that she could sense Komui cowering in a corner somewhere in the room.

---

Kanda opened the door cautiously. He knew that Allen and Lavi were not residing inside it, but he wanted to make sure; he did not want to enter a room with either of them in it any time soon, he had already had more contact with them than any human should.

To his surprise, he found Jessica in there, sitting on her bed and looking out the window. The silver light of a full moon shone upon her already pale face, making her phthalo blue‡ eyes stand out clearer than ever. Her light blonde hair looked like starlight with a gold tint. Her whole face was dreamy, lost in reverie. Kanda stepped into the room, closing the door behind him with no attempt at gentleness. Jessica jumped at the sound and turned to look at him, her eyes reproachful, like a cat that had been reprieved of its favourite chair so that its owners could pat the dog. Kanda glared at her, and then crossed the room to the sleeping bag he'd placed there earlier; as far away from her bed as possible. Looking pointedly away from her, he slipped inside it and turned away from her. He heard her sigh and walk out of the door, closing it with a little more force than necessary. God knew where she was going, it was nearly eleven O'clock.

---

*Quickly/Hurry up.

† I took it from _Infragilis_ which is Latin for "Unbreakable" and I added the _-lium_ because it's the ending for most metal names.

‡ I know it's kinda confusing, but that's the colour it says on my pencil, which happens to be the colour her eyes are. Just to clear things up, it's the same colour as the Windows Taskbar/Toolbar (the thing at the bottom of your screen, if you have Windows) I know that it's a lame description.

**A/N: Reminder; From now on, chapters will be updated three times a week. I have no specific days yet, just three times a week. Also, I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little disjointed, but I wrote it in two 4:10 pm to 9:30 pm sessions after school.**

**REVIEW PLEASE! THEY HELP ME WRITE**


	10. Weak Souls

7

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Nine-Weak souls**

Jessica had immediately noticed a change in herself after a month of training. She was much fitter, for a start, which she had thought was nearly impossible, but as it turned out, she hadn't been that fit before, seeing as she had been reduced to being a teacher at the orphanage, and had only been sent out on missions when actual Akuma had been sighted. The second thing she noticed was that she ate a lot more and got up earlier to do so, which she found confusing, because, before now, she had been able to live for two weeks on two pieces of toast and a bowl of pasta.

There was also her uniform. She hadn't made any specific requests regarding it, but it had still turned out pretty cool. She had knee-length high-heel boots with white rubber soles and thick rubber, although she did trip over them occasionally; she also had creamy white pants that were thick and comfortable, with extra stitches here and there, and her coat had a zipper, unlike the others, and was more of a jacket than anything else, and was easy to move around in. It all went nicely with the charcoal-coloured tank top she had employed to wear with them. She had also added a belt with knives and other essentials around it, and two gunbelts around her mid-thighs.

The downside to these two improvements, however, was that Lavi stared at her wherever she went, and made flirtatious comments about her shoulder-length hair. The upside to this was that it was fun to punch him once he did; it released a lot of anger.

Jessica sighed and groaned in her bed. She didn't want to wake up yet, she'd just checked the clock and it was only four in the morning. She didn't need to get up for another hour and a half, and she wouldn't have, except she was _hungry_. She heard Lavi make quiet "aaaahh-pyew-pyew-pyew-pyew-pyew" sounds in his sleep. He was quite cute, really, when he wasn't being the most annoying person in existence. She groaned again and sat up, looking around the bedroom she shared with her three male associates. Allen was making involuntary movements, and Lavi seemed to be eating the blankets that were trailing from Allen's sleeping bag. She glanced around the room, looking for Kanda. She eventually found him, at the point as far away from the three of them as possible, snoring faintly, with his eyebrow twitching and his hair messy. Jessica giggled softly at the sight of the dishevelled samurai, and then sighed again, glancing at the clock. It was _still _four O'clock. She slipped her feet out of her bed and onto the cold timber floor, walking past the other three carefully. She opened the door to the bathroom, stepped softly inside, and glanced at the mirror. She was quite a mess. In fact, she looked just like a guy who had slept in and managed to bet two balloons taped to his chest. Her hair was messy, like a white-gold haystack, here eyes were half closed, and she wore a large grey T-Shirt with black and white striped pyjama pants. She gave a wide yawn and locked the door, lest perverted redheads decided they'd get up early to have a lech.

---

Kanda was grumpy. Not just normal I-hate-you-annoying-people grumpy, but properly Jessica-got-up-before-me-and-wandered-off grumpy. He had woken to a completely empty room, probably due to his newfound tendencies to wake up at midnight and wander around in the grounds. He cursed under his breath and turned right towards the food hall.

Once he entered the food hall, he looked around to see if the Usagi or Moyashi were inside it. Luckily, they weren't, so he managed to walk up and order his soba in relative peace. His temporary peace of mind deflated slightly, however, when he noticed that the table furthest away from him was seating one pale blonde girl reading a history book and chewing absent-mindedly on a piece of toast. His anger rivalled with his sense of self-preservation, but lost in the end. He would _not _go over there and shout at her. There was _no point._

It _would _make him feel a little better though.

---

Jessica had been in for a very long, immensely boring day as soon as she opened her eyes. Life was like that when you woke up one morning to find your three roommates gone. She had expected to be woken up by Lavi's good-morning-glomp (she had taken to sleeping in lately) but instead had been woken up by the excited bounces of Lavi heading off to lunch. She grumbled as her feet hit the cold floor. She grumbled as she left the shower. She grumbled as she pulled on her clothes. She grumbled as she ate her brunch. She reminded herself to put room for grumbling on the schedule for the next day, and then she hurried towards the space where Kanda meditated every day.

It was the quietest place in the entire Headquarters; even birds would rather fly around than land in the eye line of Kanda Yuu. She arrived in the grounds in a flurry, and sat across from Kanda against the wall. She focussed all of her energy into the rock in front of her, trying her hardest to calm down. Her training commenced.

She ended up spending the rest of her afternoon focussing her Innocence into things, which was really quite easy once you'd done it a few times. She made the rock do a few loop-de-loops in mid-air, she made the tree rock backwards and forwards, in general, she bent everything to her will once it was turned into an Anti-Akuma weapon. At last she got bored with occupying mundane things, and stole Mugen from Kanda's side for a while. Not with his consent, of course, but he was quite surprised when she activated the First Illusion.

When the blue-purple of twilight crept through the windows and through the forest surrounding the Headquarters, Jessica stood up and walked past the other Exorcist to leave. She planned to go to the Library and switch her current book with one she'd had her eye on for a while.

---

Kanda walked pat the Library on the way to his room. On his way past the door, however, he bumped into an extremely solid Something in thick heeled leather boots. The next thing he knew he was on his back and the space immediately in front of him was occupied by information about Vikings. He scrabbled to a sitting position, which was quite a feat, seeing as Jessica was trying to do the same. Kanda felt extremely annoyed as the blonde girl glared at him.

"Watch where you're going, you arrogant, conceited, ignorant idiot!" She growled, jumping to her feet and jaunting off, the book miraculously appearing in her hand.

Kanda growled an inaudible retort at the retreating back of his rival. Once she was gone, he looked around. There was no one there. Or anywhere, as a matter of fact. He stood up, confident that no one had seen him fall, and stalked off, ignoring the sniggering from behind the oak doors of the Library.

---

Jessica lay on her bed and flicked through her newly borrowed book. For some reason, she couldn't focus properly, her chest hurt. She'd already taken painkillers that day, but it still really _hurt_. She groaned and curled up on her bed, rocking backwards and forwards. Shit, it _hurt. _It felt as though her heart had been ripped out and replaced with molten lava. A single tear ran down her cheekbone and suddenly she was sobbing uncontrollably. It was almost midnight; she hadn't been able to sleep at all for the past week. She set the book on the table and rolled onto her stomach, releasing small sobs into her pillow. She stayed like this until her tears subsided. Once she was confident that she wasn't going to be reduced to a ball of confusion, she got up and wandered outside.

The halls of the Black Order were silent and empty. It cast a distinct air of spookiness over wandering around at night. It made you feel like a terrible murderer from a horror story. Jessica sighed and wandered on, her boots thudding faintly on the wooden floors. She eventually came to the door that led onto the grounds from the food hall. It was only a small door by the kitchen, but it served better than the huge entrance doors. She picked its lock and slipped outside, bathing her figure in the silver light. She turned and set off clockwise around the grounds, towards the sakura blossom tree on the other side.

Her casual mood changed, however, when she arrived at the tree. Sitting underneath it, watching her patiently, was Kanda. She took a step back in alarm, at the same time that he stood up. She could see that Kanda's eyes were slightly absent, as though he was acting purely on instinct. Then she felt it. A wave washed over her, a wave of pure possession, and for a few moments, she floated, with no feeling at all. When she overcame it, she was standing rather closer to Kanda than necessary. She lost herself again, for immeasurable amounts of time. It could have been hours, for all she knew in her bubble. She started banging against her mental walls once she realised what was happening. The self that was being controlled by something else was moving closer to Kanda, her eyelids fluttering closed. The Inner Jessica screamed. _No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! NOOOOOO!!!! _She yelled to the self that was breathing on Kanda's face.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" The physical Jessica screamed, stepping back and tripping over her feet.

Her scream seemed to wake Kanda from his possession, too, because he jumped and swore. Both Exorcists glared at each other, although the effect was lost slightly because of Jessica's blush. Eventually, Jessica stood up.

"I just want you to know," She said. "I wouldn't usually do that, and I had no desire to."

They looked at each other with mutual disgust.

"Agreed." Kanda growled sullenly.

"Good. Then I have nothing more to say to you." Jessica said, turning on her heel.

"Me either." Kanda muttered.

Jessica got as far as the corner before she realised her body was really hot. Too hot. She could see her skin, tomato red in the silver light. She felt very hot, too hot to move. She looked back at Kanda, but she couldn't see his face. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she felt her fever peak.

---

**A/N: No Authors comment today. Too bored, can't be stuffed. **

**Except: good news! I got 99% on my Japanese exam! Happy days are here again! And I got 83.5% (which was the highest mark in the class *sweatdrop*) in English! *happy dance***


	11. Anchor in the Storm

8

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Ten-Anchor in the Storm. **

A lot of strange things had happened to Jessica, but this was definitely the twentieth strangest. When she had woken, the first thing she had noticed was a grinning redhead blocking the immediate view. Behind him she could see Allen. There was something very different about both of them. Maybe it was the fact that they both looked injured, she thought. She sat up, almost giving Lavi a mild concussion.

"_What the hell just happened???_" She asked. There was an obvious look of incomprehension on Lavi's face.

"Would you like me to use shorter words?!" She asked him.

They looked embarrassed. She looked from one to the other. A definite cloud of embarrassment hovered in the air*.

"That...that _was _all a dream, wasn't it?" She looked at them with fear in her eyes. "It _was _just a strange kind of delusion?"

They looked at each other. Jessica could see the answer forming in Lavi's head, as though his headband and the hair behind it were transparent. He gave her a knowing look, telling her that he knew that she knew.

"No, it wasn't." He sighed, in a very un-Lavi-like way.

She growled in embarrassment, and got out of her bed. She didn't know _what _had gotten into her, but she would damn well get it out! She reminded herself that she was a Disciple. She was a fighter, she was meant to have no emotion. She lived only to do her duty to God and eradicate the forces of Evil. She shooed Lavi and Allen with a wave of her hand. What was happening? Never before had she showed this kind of emotion, it was her nature to be stoic and strong-willed. It had never been in her nature to be happy, or even too trusting (nowadays, at least). But this, she felt like a child, with strangely strong emotions and a sense for adventure that came with all of the people who had grown up too quickly. Unfortunately, it was also in her nature to think things through in a methodical and logical way, instead of using common sense, something that most Australians used‡. She thought about it for a while, and finally came to the conclusion that, because she had never felt _accepted _before, except when she had been living on the streets, she went back to the beginning, back to where she felt _accepted_, and got the rest of her emotions back. It was a very strange thought, but it had been meandering around in her mind for a while, waiting to be noticed and properly _thought_. The scary thing was that it was perfectly plausible (to her logical, methodical mind, at least) and it gave Jessica tremendous satisfaction.

Jessica had brief flashes of people shouting at her. According to them, she was a freak, a nightmare, she'd never save the world like she so wanted to. They changed quickly, she couldn't make the faces out, but that didn't matter, they were all saying the same thing, all doing the same thing, throwing rocks, hitting her. This, coupled with the fact that she had known that she had no choice but to do God's will, was the reason she had grown more mature than everyone else from the age of ten.

She had never actually believed in God. Someone who would cause so much pain to the person who was the most determined to do His will was undoubtedly a cruel person. But, that was all right, because it didn't matter if he was cruel to his most devoted servants, Jessica didn't care, because as long as everyone else entered into the kingdom of Heaven, it didn't matter if she was shunted to one side into Purgatory. She would be happy knowing that she was God's most devoted, even if she was forgotten. God could make her do anything, as long as every other person was free of sin. Well, she didn't actually believe in God, per-se, but she believed that Someone was in charge. After all, she was just a pawn. But when all of the other pieces were busy undermining the kingdom, even one pawn could save the King.

Therefore, lat night, she had been controlled by her Faith. Faith was something no one could control; it possessed you at times when it thought you weren't on the right track of your Duty.

She thought back to the Directress. She had told Jessica this, because she had seen Faith and Determination in her. She had known that if Jessica could be comforted by God's own family, then she would become the strongest Disciple of all, she would be like a saint. Jessica had always known that she had a stronger purpose, but she had always had a strong feeling that she wasn't doing it. Even once she was the strongest believer, she could feel it. But now, her heart was light, she was meant to be here, it had pulled her all her life, which meant that the place God wanted her to be was in the Black Order, because in the Black Order she could do things, save people, and be God's Strongest without having to disguise herself in any way.

The others had never been strong believers like she. Sure, they had prayed all the time, and had gone to church, but that wasn't true _faith. _True Faith was where you loved God without praising him all the time, because, frankly, God got sick of people grovelling. None of them had actually been determined to save the whole world if need be, they were just trying to save this tiny part of it. They were selfish, but Jessica had always been surprisingly selfless, it probably came from being born in a laundry. But Jessica could not go around being so arrogant, saying she was God's Strongest, she must do her job humbly, because she was just a messenger really.

---

Kanda didn't believe in anything. He was an Exorcist because that's what he'd been made for. He didn't believe in the spirits of his Shintoism culture, even. There was no divine being controlling everything. The world was created, and you just lived with that, you didn't ask questions like "What's it about? Really, when you get right down to it?" You just lived life and did what you were meant to do. When you died, you died, you didn't see any mysterious deities, you couldn't see _anything; _that was the _whole point_. The whole idea of "soul mates" was ridiculous too. People "fell in love" because if you didn't then there wouldn't be any more humans. It all came from animals, the self-preservation instincts and the "love" thing.

He cleared his mind for the fifth time that day. For some reason, every time he was relaxed, calm, a thought would pop into his head and trigger a whole train of thought to set off along the silence which had inconveniently formed tracks.

---

Lavi was slightly worried. Jessica had been out of it all day, and he was half expecting her to attempt to kill him when he greeted her that afternoon. She looked up vaguely and murmured something which probably sounded a lot louder to her ears, then continued to walk on, looking worried and determined at the same time. Her eyes bore that look that was usually associated with people who, when asked what was so upsetting, would burst into tears. Lavi stared. Something was definitely _not right. _Especially after witnessing last nights events, he knew that the miniscule "relationship" (where each party barely tolerated the other) between Kanda and Jessica had imploded before his very eyes. But, he reminded himself, that was what had happened with everyone else's "relationships" with Kanda, except maybe Lenalee's††.

---

Jessica wandered around aimlessly in a cloud of despair. Eventually, though, she came across Kanda. Well, from afar, that is. His face looked quite peaceful from Jessica's point of view. Jessica's eyes prickled and she screwed her face up. Her eyelids yielded and tears streamed over her cheekbones (well, cheek_bone_. On the other side, they just got stuck and condensed on her lens.) She absentmindedly reached up and flicked open a little tear duct hole at the bottom of her Scanner‡‡. Once again, she had no idea why she was crying, but her body was hot and she was blushing. It was an odd reaction that happened around Kanda, that and the absence of The Music became more pronounced. Water dribbled steadily out of the tear duct on her left cheekbone, as tears streamed steadily down her face, fully visible in the afternoon sun. For some reason, ever since the night two months ago, this had been happening, which meant that she avoided Kanda with more determination than usual. She really hated herself,

Depression was eating away at her, and she cursed the fact that she was recently very emotional. The upside was that, when she was feeling strong emotions, it seemed that her synchronisation improved.

Jessica felt a large drop hit the crown of her head. It was wet and soaked straight into her scalp. Then a drop sailed past her nose and she realised it was raining. She stayed put, she was too lazy to move, and besides, rain wasn't that bad really. For a start, no one could tell she was crying, and it seemed to be more romantic to stand in the rain during depression than to simply stand in the rain because you didn't own an umbrella. She slipped on her Exorcists jacket, and zipped it up tightly, hunching up with her shoulders next to her ears to keep her neck warm.

"Bugger." She muttered, slouching off into the shade of a tree that looked as if rain was the least of its worries.

Jessica also liked the rain for this reason; it had only rained once in her lifetime back home, and she had liked it very much. She had run through the streets with the other "street rats" and looked in awe at the flooding river and panicked horses. Other than that, the streets and houses had been _clean _afterwards, and the damp smell in the air had exhilarated Jessica ever since. She knew that she was British at heart, but she would never actually admit it to any other Australian, she had her pride, after all.

Jessica stayed out there for a while. It was the best place to ponder, under a tree in the rain. She didn't even notice the increasingly grey clouds. Eventually, though, she realised that a pretty big storm was coming, and it was bringing friends. She began to stride towards the Black Order when the wind picked up, and she heard thunder in the distance. It certainly didn't look good, and the prospect had gone through black and out the other side, so it was now a sullen storm cloud colour. The tree was rocking like a rowboat in gale force winds. She threw caution-and a few other things too-to the winds and ran full-pelt up the hill and through the wind and rain. She reached the dingy kitchen backdoor and wrenched it open with force.

---

*You had to be definite about things like clouds of embarrassment, either it was embarrassment, or it was something else†

†Preferably not baked bean related.

‡ Common sense is different to logic in this: If they see someone flying, with wings on their back, most logical-minded people would say: "There must have been a breakthrough in science!" Whereas common-sense-minded people would say: "Cor. That must be an angel!" +

+Most debates about extremely important things are logical-minded people against common-sense-minded people. Things like what shape the world is and how to tell if someone's a witch. **

**Basically, everything that people argued about in medieval times.

††Although Lavi wasn't sure if this was because of Komui, or because Lenalee was a girl, the weaker sex, and therefore not worth attempting to kill.

‡‡ It had been called many other things, of course, like "mask" or "oh my shitting God! What is that _thing_?" But Jessica preferred "Scanner."

**A/N: It's disjointed, I know, but I think I might make up for it by putting either a lot of angst or a romantic breakthrough. Frankly, I'm sick of not having any romance so far. The whole God's Strongest thing was made up on the spot, I'm not religious or anything, so it was just a whole lot of improvisation on my part. **

**Review, please!!!! I haven't got any for ages!**


	12. Increased Heat

9

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Eleven-Increasing Heat**

It was another rainy day, just like the days of the past week or so. Jessica had always stayed outside when the clouds changed to their dull grey, but today she was inside. Lavi had told her rather firmly that she probably shouldn't stay outside in the rain all day. It had been very unusual, because usually he would say something in his happy voice, which would cheer Jessica up immensely, but his firm, adult-like voice made her feel more like a naughty child than anything.

She sighed, going back to her book on Japanese history. She didn't know why she'd suddenly chosen a book about something so vague. It definitely wasn't like her; she would usually choose a book about a culture that made the western world, like the Roman or Persian empires.

The book was thinner than she was used to, and wasn't remarkable in any way, it was just a green book with a stain across the cover. Jessica had seen it lying around and hadn't looked twice at it, but once it was on the shelf again, she found it a curious object. She hadn't known, hadn't even thought about it, but she actually found it increasingly more interesting the more she read. She found the Shintoism a compelling subject, but couldn't find it in any other book.

She closed the book carefully and massaged her temples. She had the worst headache in the history of insomnia. It was throbbing like an exotic jungle plant that's just eaten the cameraman. She groaned subconsciously, and clamped her hand over her mouth. There was a muffled groan from the next room. That was _Lenalee's room_, what was she...?

No.

There was a reasonable explanation for everything, she reminded herself. It was probably just…a headache, or cramps or something. There was no way that Lenalee, the Black Order's picture of innocence, would engage in _That_.

Still, though, it made her cringe just to think of it. No way in hell, would she do _That _for a long while. A really long while, she hoped.

She glanced instinctively at her pocket watch as she heard a _beep-beep _next door. It was around nine O'clock in the evening. God, she'd been reading for a long time. Her head was throbbing even more painfully, and Jessica hoped that it was just liquid deficiency, and not anything serious. But she was surprisingly hot as well, despite the fierce rain outside, and she was getting quite flustered.

---

It had been another two months since Jessica's flu, Lavi remembered, but she still had a habit of coming up with sudden fevers. Lavi had thought about this immensely in his spare time, and wondered whether she had a low immune system, which would be unfortunate for any Exorcist. But it hadn't been like that before, he reminded himself, she had had an extremely high immune system and pain threshold up until now. The British winter seemed to have had an effect on her, seeing as it was not as warm as an Australian winter, by far.

However, when Lavi had seen her recently, she had looked quite happy, with not a cold symptom to be seen. Before, she had been unhappy and sickly looking, and the uncertainty and worry had been plastered on her face even when she smiled. Lavi had frequently wondered whether Kanda was some cause of this, but he couldn't think how.

And that was the other thing. Since Jessica had come, Lavi had been quite attached to her, like a little sister who was bullied frequently. Lavi had been worried when she'd come back from the rain six weeks ago, looking like a strange kind of zombie. He was fully aware that he worried like Jessica's mother, and it wasn't a real problem, as long as no one found out.

---

Jessica finally understood what people said about Australia. When you were there it was just ordinary, but once you went somewhere else, it was incredible. She hadn't realised what people said about your heart, that you left it there when you left, but it was true. That was probably why her immune system was so average, because he heart was still at _The Holy Cross Institute for Foundlings and Orphans_.

It was curious, she pondered, but it seemed that every time she was outside these days, Kanda seemed to be just around the corner, looking mellow. He was at the tree again, the sakura blossom. Jessica noticed that his hair was untied, the strangely falling sakura petals mingling with the raven strands. Jessica tripped, and realised that her feet had been moving by themselves, pulling her towards her rival. She pulled herself up and felt her legs wobble slightly.

_This might be a good time to tell him, _she thought numbly, _he seems calm and slow to anger._ She took a step forward andgulped, forming the words in her head. _Kanda, I know you don't really..._No. That was no good. _Kanda, don't blame me, but...I..._No, won't work. _Look here, Kanda, I..._No, no, no, no, no! _Hey, er, Kanda? Have you ever had that feeling that you'd be perfectly happy to die for someone? _No, that would not do, Kanda wouldn't die for _anyone_.

She released a small sigh and walked forward the five or so meters to the beautiful samurai. _You'll just have to improvise, _She thought. _Speak the words that burden your heart. _

She stepped forward, the final step, and fell over. She could feel the annoyance radiating from Kanda like a heater, but without the heat of course.

"Bollocks." She muttered as she stood up and examined her dirtied knees.

Kanda stared at her in his usual superior way. Jessica's cheeks burned, but she gave him the most defiant look despite it. They stared each other down for a few minutes, and then Kanda made a small noise and turned away. Jessica relaxed her gaze and blushed again. This was her chance, she supposed. She didn't think she'd ever be able to get a Lavi-free space that happened to occupy Kanda.

"_Hitomibore.*" _Jessica heard Kanda murmur.

She turned towards him, curiously. Then she felt her lips move, but she couldn't catch the word she uttered.

"_Aishiteru. †_" She breathed.

Kanda stared at her, wide eyed in disbelief.

"_Kokoro kana anata o aishitemasu. ‡"_ Jessica said, looking away.

Jessica thought she might have gone mad, but she could've sworn Kanda had just chuckled. She stared, he chuckled again. He leaned in close, and Jessica prepared herself for cruel, harsh words, maybe violence.

"_Watashi mo anata o aishitemasu. +" _He murmured, hurriedly.

Jessica stared at him, expecting an Akuma to come breaking out of his body. Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened, and he just looked at her in a kind of faithful way. His eyes were hard and warm, his features had truth written deeply into them, and the effect was heightened by his raven hair billowing around his pale face. She knew what was coming.

But her brain still imploded when he leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to hers.

It was pure bliss. She couldn't feel, couldn't think, she could just _react_. She reacted to the one thing that seemed real; the one thing that instinct told her wasn't just a fantasy, which was Kanda._ His_ hand on her cheek, _his_ lips against hers, _his_ hair flowing around her, it was all _real_, material and thoroughly consuming.

The next thing she knew, the music was back, and it had brought something else. There was now a strong pain in her shoulder blades, white-hot and moving, as well as a dim awareness of pain in the centre of her head.

But she couldn't stop. It was an instinctive pull to reach her hand up and grab the midnight hair, pushing him closer. No matter how much pain her shoulders were in, or how much she longed to breath, Kanda was still the only _real _thing in her world.

Kanda pushed her up against the tree, but no matter how much it heightened the pain, she was still marvelling at his skill, to be forceful but gentle. Jessica could've sworn his lips tasted like strawberries and cream.

The next few minutes involved a lot of rising heat, as well as pain, and Jessica's lungs almost bursting, but it was well worth it just to have Kanda's emotions revealed.

Jessica was finally pulled back to-the slightly less real-reality just a few moments before Kanda broke away to breath. His lips finally withdrew, and he stared at her expectantly. Her lip quivered and a tear ran down her cheek, the pain was almost unbearable. She tried to communicate this to Kanda without opening her mouth, but it proved impossible.

She was finally forced to open her mouth when the white-hot Something pushed against her skin from the inside, she let out a small scream and felt her knees buckle. Leaning against the tree, she whimpered and tried to get her heart rate back to normal. Kanda watched her, his face similar to how it was usually composed, except with a strong hint of worry etched into his eyes. He lowered himself to wrap his arms cautiously around her.

"_Doo Shimashita Ka?**" _He whispered gently into her neck.

He was still speaking Japanese. Jessica longed to know why, because it wouldn't help her situation at all if she couldn't translate it due to pain overload.

"Y...Yes." She whimpered. Kanda's eyes flashed with sadness, and she interpreted them correctly as heartbreak. "N...Not that I don't...like you, Kanda, but...at the...moment, there's something...else at the immediate...forefront of my mind." She was having trouble stringing her words together.

He stared at her, scepticism radiating from him.

"Look, I _do _love you, right? Happy?" She let her irritation show strongly. "But at the moment, something's about to..."

She couldn't finish her sentence. Kanda looked increasingly worried now, in his determined, haughty way. She gasped, determined to gather enough air to say the next part loudly.

"_Something's about to burst out of my shoulder blades!" _She cried. Her information was punctuated by a tear or two and a small scream.

She doubled up and bit into her knee in pain. The things were starting to push insistently against her skin. Kanda seemingly wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her up carefully. Jessica felt herself being carried along, up hallways and past people who seemed to waste their time exclaiming.

Finally, there was a definite bang, and Jessica saw the white floor of Komui's office between Kanda's arm and chest. She imagined the scared look on Kanda's face, and felt her insides fill with the material of guilt. She imagined the concerned look on Komui's face and let out another small scream, so he would get the point.

"Komui!" Kanda said desperately above her.

Jessica let out a final, bloodcurdling scream as whatever they were split open her back, the slashes getting longer as though breaking open a few seams. She heard a few drops of blood spatter on various surfaces.

The pain was gone, and Jessica dimly heard Komui say something along the lines of "My...goodness! Are they...wings?" But she didn't really care at that point, her world was slowly fading out, everything was already grey.

The world went black, and Jessica was dimly aware of being carried to a bed.

---

*Love at first sight.

†I love you.

‡I really love you.

+I love you too.

**What's wrong?/Is something wrong?

**A/N: Good stuff, no? **

**Just btw, I might be changing the name of this story. I have a few ideas, but if you have any suggestions, please tell me.**

**REVIEW.**


	13. A Thousand Words

8

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Twelve-A Thousand Words**

Kanda knew he shouldn't have done that. He had regretted it as soon as he had seen Jessica's body slump against the tree. He had been nursing a kind of admiration of her for a long time, sure, but he shouldn't have done something like that. Even if he _knew _he was in love, and just because she uttered that word in his native language, did not justify his forceful actions in any way.

On the boat, his "feelings" were locked and chained, so even he could not see them, but once he had his own room again, he seemed to miss her, and the background music became more forceful, reminding him of her every minute of the day. Having a few months to ponder certainly didn't help either, what with the sureness of his feelings growing slowly more uncertain, and the fondness of her pretty blue eyes growing rapidly stronger.

But Kanda's control was wavering, and she just happened to be near him when he felt his control snap. One subconscious decision, her hesitation, the single little word and it ended up like this, with her shaking in his arms and letting out small screams and whimpers every few steps.

And, Kanda had to admit, he was horrified, scared, and aghast. He was a terrible person, to have his single affectionate touch awaken such a monster or...Thing inside of Jessica. He wasn't saying that Jess was all Light, but to awaken that kind of Thing inside a person who was ultimately Good, even unintentionally, was a terrible thing.

Kanda carried her along halls and through doorways, looking for the Science Lab. He burst through the door, Jessica shaking violently in his arms. Komui stared at them, and Kanda saw his lips move, yet he heard no sound but Jessica's strange music.

He followed Komui towards a kind of ward, and faintly heard himself hurriedly explaining what had happened. Kanda laid the younger girl on her side on the bed, and took a few steps back to allow a few other scientists room.

He felt extremely bleak, and all he could think of was Jessica, trying to remember how pretty her face was when she laughed, but he could only see her when she'd slumped and screamed a few moments ago.

---

Jessica called out to Kanda. She was being tortured, hurt, starved, frozen, and every other kind of torture there was, yet every time she lifted her head, there was a vision of Kanda standing under the sakura blossom tree, his hair flowing in the wind.

Her head was shoved into the icy water once more. She screamed his name again. The people on the edge of her vision sniggered.

She was placed in the middle of a cave like room. The people moved into a semi-circle around her. She desperately wanted to know why _this _was her subconscious, why she was here after she'd passed out.

What was happening? Surely, this _shouldn't _be her subconscious, right? As far as she knew, the type of creatures who usually appeared when you were unconscious didn't really do the whole torture thing. What were they then? They could be a strange kind of Akuma, but she didn't think that Akuma would usually do this; they preferred the whole "attacking random people" method.

If this _was _her subconscious though, it could only mean one thing.

She had a really disturbed mind.

But, now she thought about it, who said it was her subconscious? That "Kanda" could have been a Noah or something, which had poisoned her when they'd "kissed" and caused her pain, made her pass out, and then brought her here to torture her for unknown reasons. It was perfectly plausible, in Jessica's mind.

Which was where she was now.

It wasn't that she was merely refusing to believe that she'd been taken hostage; it was the fact that this place seemed _so familiar_. The cave walls and the steady drip in the background spoke so utterly of _her _that she just knew that it was her subconscious. She tried her hardest to remember what her subconscious had looked like the last time she'd visited it.

Of course, she'd visited it many times in the course of her life, but it seemed to be different places at different times. For example, she remembered that, when she was at the orphanage, her subconscious had taken the form of either her beloved streets and alleys or the large house she had been born in. When she'd been a Disciple, it had been the form of her bedroom*, but now it seemed to be this cave, which she'd never set foot in before.

She became aware of the shadows talking amongst themselves. They seemed to be restless and disconcerted, for some reason. Jessica guessed that it was because she seemed to be thinking.

It was a well-known fact that torturers don't like it when their captives started to think about what anything was. She decided to deceive them a bit, and pretend to consider her options and formulate a plan. She stood up.

The shadows stepped back a bit, as though scared of her. She could use that to her advantage. She stepped forward, closely examining the figures. They stepped back again.

She made a half-hearted attempt to run at them, and fell over. She hadn't seen the shackle around her ankle.

But, if she was chained up, why were they so scared of her? Surely you couldn't be scared of someone chained up and confused?

Could you?

---

Kanda was anxious. So much so that, when Lavi had walked past him that morning, Kanda had seen a look of great concern on the redhead's face. It was dead annoying. He couldn't even meditate or practice, all he could really do was pace and ponder the impending doom†.

He "visited" Jessica every few hours, and checked her status and stuff, but after a week of this, Komui banned him from the Infirmary. After that, Kanda had sulked quite a bit in his own corner of anxiety and woe.

And, it was very strange, but once he couldn't see her he no longer felt any inclination to eat or sleep. Just as with everything else, her face swam into view whenever he closed his eyes, and when he ate his soba he was constantly reminded of blackberries.

Blackberries. Kanda had been constantly reminded of them, even without his food. He fully remembered that her lips had tasted just like them, rich, sweet, and stickyoverall. He wondered what his own lips tasted like. Soba probably, or some other dish he was fond of, like ramen. But that was irrelevant. In fact, her lips were probably so sweet that his tasted like nothing when compared to hers, so plain that they were rendered tasteless.

He jumped slightly as Allen and Lavi walked past, trying to hide their concerned looks. As anyone could've guessed, Lavi had a harder time doing this than Allen, seeing as he was so mentally impaired. In fact, all of their previous hyperactive and possibly cute-Kanda wouldn't know-personality traits had disappeared as soon as they added Jessica's coma with his own anxious expression.

Kanda knew full well that they were trying to figure out why he was so worried. Let them try, he thought, after all, the true reason why he was like this would never cross their minds for more than a few moments. After that, he had noticed them several times, talking to each other and glancing towards him. Even Lenalee joined in the game after Kanda had been banned from the Infirmary. And now, it seemed every person who knew Kanda seemed to have formed conclusions about his pacing and anxious expressions.

Every now and then, Kanda would notice a small group of people conversing in low voices. They all seemed to stop and watch him if he came too close. But, he marvelled at their ignorance, too. Wasn't it obvious that he knew what they were doing? Standing around, discussing _his _feelings, as though he was under surveillance! Those bastards. This was exactly why he liked none of them; they stood around and talked behind people's backs. He was above them, of course, but that didn't stop him from finding them annoying.

---

Lavi was worried about Yuu. Never before had he seen the surly Japanese man so anxious, or, for that matter, so unselfish. It seemed that Jessica's month-long coma was the reason for Kanda's worried expression and occasional pacing, and this, of course, made Lavi the most curious he had ever been in his life.

And not just that, but as time wore on and Jessica stayed asleep for longer and longer, Kanda's expression seemed to get slightly more psychotic. Each time Lavi saw him, he seemed to be subconsciously pacing, biting his lip or just staring into space like a zombie. It had to stop. If Lavi saw that despairingly anxious expression once more, he'd die from the pity.

Kanda would probably kill him before he killed himself, he thought, if the samurai caught anyone pitying him, they'd die before they could say "Are you alright, Kanda?"

Lavi stared as Kanda walked by, and hurriedly began pondering. Why was he so affected by Jessica's coma anyway? The last time Lavi saw them in the same room, they'd been resolutely-and not to mention stubbornly-looking away from each other.

---

* Not just her ordinary bedroom, but the kind of bedroom that people only have a few times in their life. The kind of bedroom that contains all of the toys you've ever lost, and pictures of all the people you've ever loved.

† Not really _doom, _but people tend to get a bit melodramatic when wings wrench out of peoples backs.

**A/N: *sarcasm* Thank you all **_**so **_**much for suggesting names for my unofficial re-naming of the story. **

**Oh yeah, also, I might only be uploading twice a week instead of thrice. If so, the new update days will be (my) Wednesday, and (my) Sunday. I need more time to write, because I've got to practice the Saxophone at least once a week, and my English teacher wants me to do good copies of all of the poems I've written in my book, as well as doing a short story (she wants me to write one for an all-school writing comp) Plus, I need some space-out time, because I'm currently writing the story even at lunch when my friends are sick, just to upload it in time. **

**Kanda's feelings were hard to write this chapter, because I tried to make him sound anxious but haughty at the same time. Jessica's subconscious parts were torture, too.**

**And, if nobody reviews this time, someone will die in the next chapter. **


	14. Kanda Flavoured

13

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Thirteen-Kanda Flavoured**

Lenalee had come across Lavi pacing, with a worried expression on his face. Of course, there was no doubt as to what he was thinking about, she was just amazed that no one had gotten as far as her yet. To her, it was quite obvious what Kanda was anxious about, but maybe you had to be a girl for it to even cross your mind.

Allen strode past and backed up a bit. He stared at his best friend pacing, with that constipated look on his face. Lenalee sighed; Allen could be very slow sometimes.

"Good Morning, Allen." She smiled at him.

Just as Lenalee had thought he would, Allen jumped about a foot in the air and stared at her.

"G-Good Morning, Lenalee." He stuttered.

Together, they watched Lavi pace.

"Nii-san says that Jessica will probably wake up today. Usually any Innocence or shock-induced comas only last about six weeks with the medication he provided for her." Lenalee said after a while of watching Lavi pace obliviously.

"Really?!" Allen said, a look of excitement dawning on his face.

"Yes, and her condition has been getting better apparently." She supplied, looking bored.

"Wow. Maybe we should tell Kanda?!" Lavi said excitedly, scaring both of them with his sudden consciousness.

They stared at the redhead for a moment. Allen seemed to formulate a plan.

"No! We won't tell him until she _does _wake up, and then, the expression on his face will tell us why he cares!" Allen said, excitedly.

Lenalee stared. It was a surprisingly good plan, for something that Allen had thought up. Lavi joined in the potential scheming, and Lenalee tuned out for a while, only resurfacing when she heard

"And _then _can we throw a pie at him?!" Lavi said excitedly.

"For Christ's sake, Lavi! _We are not throwing a pie at him!_" Allen shouted.

Lavi pouted in a thoroughly five-year-old way.

"But...I wanna throw a pie at him..." He said mournfully.

It was one of the saddest faces Lavi had ever made. The cuteness was unbearable.

"No." Lenalee said, finality in the single syllable.

"B-But! Lenalee! Look at that face! You can't say no to that poor face!" Allen protested.

"I just did. No pie throwing." She said again.

Lavi glared at her. She sighed; Lavi was so childlike that she was surprised he was able to kill five Akuma at once with just a swing of his hammer. But, then again, her brother was similar to him in a slightly different way, but he was still to be feared to the extreme too.

---

Kanda sneezed for the fifth time that day. God damnit, couldn't they talk about someone _else _for a change? He angrily slaughtered a fly as it went past, and he felt a little bit better. If he just imagined they had the Usagi's face, then he gained much pleasure in killing them.

He fiercely wondered what would happen if he _did _kill the redhead. Not much, he didn't think. He might get a severe lecture from Leverrier or someone, and Allen would probably attack him, but then again, what was new? He might as well kill the idiot now, hide for two weeks, and resurface after the panic had died down. But of course, he couldn't do that, not to Bookman's apprentice, the history of the Black Order would probably lie in his hands or something.

He sighed. It would be so good to kill Lavi, but Kanda wasn't quite in the mood to kill the other boy today. In fact, he wasn't really in the mood to do anything. It was strange, but lately he seemed to be experiencing waves of adolescence that he hadn't experienced even when he _was _an adolescent. It was like his childhood was catching up to him or something weird like that, because he was suddenly having bad mood swings and acting like a teenager in general. It was utterly confusing, even for him.

He stood up, gracefully as usual, and made the usual "che" noise at the dead flies littered around his feet. He turned towards the door on the other side of courtyard, and strode uncaringly towards it, irritation in every well-placed step. He turned up the hallway and, to his frustration, came across Allen and Lenalee. He took a step back; they seemed to be talking about Jess.

"Like I said, Allen, nii-san thinks she should be awake soon." Lenalee said impatiently.

Kanda stared. She was going to wake up soon? That was…the best news he had heard for a long time. He should go and ask Komui about it, demand to know.

_But, wouldn't that be suspicious, Kanda? Isn't the whole fact that you're so anxious about it extremely suspicious? _He thought.

True, he hadn't thought about it like that before. No wonder people talked about it, it _was _extremely suspicious, after all.

He continued up the hallway as though he had heard nothing. Lenalee glanced at him warily, but he just glanced at her apathetically.

But the same words ran through his head.

Jess was going to wake up.

She was going to come and find him.

---

Jessica screamed. It was happening all over again. The things were bursting out of her shoulders. This was good, though, because it meant she was about to wake up. She longed to wake up, and find Kanda. For some reason, she felt that it would all be right again, if she would just find Kanda. Kanda would make it all right again.

Somehow.

This time, when they wrenched out of her back, she remained conscious. They flicked lines of blood on the wall when they snapped out. Jess's knees buckled and she gasped in pain as her face hit the wet cave floor.

She lay for a few hours, gaining her breath and gasping from the pain. No wonder she'd passed out before, it really hurt. She sat up and slowly turned around, wincing as it pulled her shoulder bone.

The wings were beautiful, although covered in blood. There was a long rip in her skin underneath each. They were made of long, blue-white feathers, which shone.

Innocence.

She could feel warmth pulsating from the beautiful extensions. It made her whole back numb, so that she couldn't feel the slashes. But, she knew what she had to do. She would wake up soon, but she'd have to heal herself so as not to scream when she did.

Carefully, she turned and trained her eye on the slashes. She did what she had done millions of times before, and moved the Innocence by her heart towards the wounds.

_Heal_. She chanted. _Heal. _

She felt the warmth trickle down her back, and arched it as the wounds knitted together, leaving two barely discernible scars.

She was shaking extremely violently, and she couldn't stand up. But the cave was shaking too, and dust and rock fell around her. She was scared, what if she couldn't stand up in time to escape and wake up? What if she died...right after Kanda had opened her eyes?

"No!" She said out loud.

She wrenched herself up, her legs shaking and tears sliding down her face. She wouldn't betray Kanda.

There were scuffling sounds behind her. Oh, she'd forgotten about the Shadows. She turned towards them, just as a boulder dropped beside her, leaving a sunlit portal above her.

"What are you?" She called above the crumbling.

The foremost Shadow dropped its hood. She had hair of the same colour and consistency as Lavi's. Her face was beautiful, like a lion's.

"We are your Demons." She said simply.

Her demons? This still didn't make any sense.

"What are my Demons?" She asked warily.

She laughed, musically.

"Your faults!" She called happily.

Right, um, her faults? Good, great, but at the moment, they were all about to die. Ok, who cared? They'd survive; they were part of her, after all. Ok, ok, ok, ok.

_Calm down, idiot. _She chastised herself.

Calm, calm.

This wasn't the time for calm.

In a split second, she made her decision, and leapt into the air, just as a few boulders piled themselves beside her. She reached out her hand as she passed the hole. Instinctively, she gave her wings a great _flap, _and her fingers scrabbled on the loose dirt bordering the portal. She grabbed a solid stone and, panting, pulled herself up and hooked each arm over the edge.

She listened to herself breathe for a few seconds as she got her breath back. Once she was confident, she pulled herself up and draped herself over the hole.

Then, she was back in the Black Order.

There were people staring at her, and she realised she was sitting up. She grinned her most retarded grin.

"Hi all, how long've I been out of it?" She asked, yawning.

They stared at her.

"What?" She asked. "What's up? Why are you all looking at me like stunned mullets?"

Lavi opened his mouth, and then closed it again. Lenalee made a weird noise, and furrowed her eyebrows in concentration. Komui grinned at her.

All in all, it was all very off-putting, like she had some condition and she should be dead right now.

_If someone doesn't tell me right now, someone will die in a horribly violent way. _She threatened mentally.

They stared. She looked back at them, with a glare to match Kanda's.

"Er...um...look down, Jess." Allen said cautiously.

Oh no, she was naked or something, right? God damn it. She looked down, and almost fainted of shock.

Kanda was on her lap, asleep, and, since she sat up, his face was now squashed into her chest. It was the strangest thing that had happened to Jess since she discovered her Innocence.

---

Kanda was _so _tired. He hadn't slept for a long time. He'd come to the Infirmary to see if Jess was awake yet, like Lenalee had mentioned, and Komui had let him in. It was great; he could see her for the first time in six weeks. She was still asleep, though, and Kanda grumbled about that for a little while, seeing nothing better to do. He continued to sit there moodily for a long time, glaring at random people who walked past, and sitting on the floor with his arms on her bed. Damn it, couldn't she wake up at a more convenient time?

He was really tired now, and it was only six O'clock. He grumbled. If she didn't wake up soon, he'd fall asleep on her and...

And...

Kanda's head was resting on her stomach, his raven hair spilling over her sleeping form. He looked irritated, even in sleep, and his mouth was open, with a small spot of damp blooming under it.

---

Lavi grinned as he entered the room with Allen and Lenalee. Jessica was at the far end, asleep, and Kanda was next to her, with his head on her stomach and sleeping deeply.

Lavi nudged Allen, gesturing towards Kanda with his head. Allen stared at him, confused, and the redhead took a thick black marker out of his pocket. Allen grinned the best grin that Lavi had seen on the younger boy's face.

---

It was eight O'clock. Jessica had just gotten out of the Infirmary, after having her condition checked in various ways many times.

She was looking for Kanda, of course, because he had stormed off angrily once she had woken him up. She had looked everywhere, and was getting desperate. She'd even checked his _room_, much to her astonishment. He wasn't anywhere.

She sighed, turning around. A fluffy orange head zoomed out of sight. Lavi had been following her for the past half an hour. She was going to kill him soon, and restore peace to the Black Order. She glared at the spot where his hair was sticking out of the wall. He probably didn't think that she knew he was there.

Jess turned a corner that she hadn't noticed on her previous search. She recognised where it lead, but she didn't think that anyone came there anymore. It was the really old training courtyard. She usually came here when she was hiding from someone, because the entrance was so obscure as to be hidden if you weren't expecting it. Kanda just had to be there. _Had _to be. There was nowhere else an antisocial eighteen-year-old boy would go.

She walked faster, excited now, running her hand along the wall. There was a notch in the wood about a meter from the entrance, which was the only indication of it.

She felt her fingers run over the notch, and stopped a second later. The door was next to her, but it was so rundown that you wouldn't want to open it. The main doors, next to it, were large and made of oak, but they had been shut using some unknown substance, because she had never been able to open them.

Her hand glided towards the broken doorhandle, and she wrenched the wood from the wall. An avalanche of dust fell past her eyes. She'd probably pulled a bit too hard.

On the other side of the door was the courtyard. The small shaded area was immediately before her, with the low stone walls along the edge, and there was an apple tree in the far corner. Kanda sat under the apple tree, legs crossed, eyes closed, and eyebrows furrowed in concentration. She stepped into the courtyard, and closed Lavi's entire body in the door.

She ran the next few steps, and Kanda looked up at her. It was like she was in a daze, like from that time ages ago.

She felt her knees bend, and she sat in front of him, staring straight into his eyes. She had to say something, she couldn't _not _say something. She owed it to Kanda.

"Kanda, I-"She started.

But, the second strangest thing that had happened to Jessica ever happened just then.

A large cream pie shot past her ear and hit Kanda full in the face. She stared at him. She was briefly aware of Lavi saying something behind her. Unconsciously, she moved her hand towards Kanda's face and took the pie crust off. Underneath, masses of cream covered the samurai's pale skin.

Her hand wiped the cream from his cheeks, and she licked it off her gloves greedily. Kanda and Lavi stared at her. She wiped the cream from the corners of her mouth and grinned at them.

"Mmm, Kanda flavoured." She said, jokingly.

Kanda's eyes widened and Jessica felt she could control her instinct no longer; a haze was creeping over it.

Sh leaned forward forcefully and kissed the samurai full on hi cream-covered lips.

---

**A/N: Ok, good chapter? Personally, I thought it needed a bit of cuteness, so guess what I added? PIE! Everyone loves pie.**

**And, yeah, I have a short list of names that I think would suit the story. Here they are. I would like it if you voted for them, seeing as it **_**is**_** a story that you're reading.**

**Ok, names:**

**The Divine Influence,**

**Seven Deadly Sins (I've Committed All),**

**Yuri Tora,**

**Daraku Shita Tenshi (Fallen Angel),**

**Resonation,**

**Music of the Mind,**

**Enchanted Music (suggested by reader),**

**Guardian Angel,**

**The Lion is an Angel. (Other disambiguation's: The Lion and The Angel; The Lion and Her Angel/The Lion and His Angel.) **

**Okay! Vote, now! If you don't (and I'm serious here) the story will be On Hiatus, and someone will die in the next chapter.**

**Thankyou and goodnight!**


	15. Chapter 14

10

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Fourteen**

Jessica woke the next morning as rays of sun filtered through the window. She stirred blearily and rolled over, onto what she _thought _was Kanda, but ended up being vast expanse of empty bed. She made a few grumbly kind of sounds from where her face was immersed in cold pillow, which, she knew for sure, had the exact same scent as Kanda's hair did.

She sat up, and made the general sound, usually coming from teenagers and people who drank one beer too many last night, of not really wanting to get up. She stretched, flopped onto bed again, thought for a while, and then stuck her left foot out onto the cold floorboards. She flung the covers back before she could change her mind, and leapt from the safety of her sheets.

She glanced at the clock. It was eight in the morning. Great, how did she manage to get up so late? As far as she knew, she didn't have mental problems like Lavi, so she must have just been very tired.

But she couldn't imagine why.

---

It was four in the morning, and Kanda was awake. To his left, Jessica slept extremely soundly, with her foot twitching and a large wet patch next to her cheek. He sighed, she could be so cute sometimes, and that was what worried him. He hated cute, it was normal, plain, average, that he preferred.

Except that Jessica was far from _average_. From his point of view, she was the most agreeable person in the whole world, and that took skill. She was also a very good fighter, had intelligence not usually found in girls her age, and she loved him. The three things that Kanda valued most of all. Well, mostly. But he also valued the ability to be able to shut up at will, and he wasn't quite sure she possessed that ability.

_What are you even thinking of that for, baka? Who the hell cares? _He chastised himself.

Anyway, he had a mission today, so he couldn't just sit around thinking about Jessica all the time. It was just too...unlike him to think about someone all day.

He sighed, and stepped into Jessica's bathroom, taking one last look at her sleeping form before taking of his sleepwear and stepping into the shower.

---

It wasn't like they'd had sex, so why were Lavi and Allen staring at her so much, just because Kanda's room had shown no signs of being slept in? It was extremely unnecessary, and she felt a strong urge to slam her fist into Lavi's face.

She chose a table in the opposite corner to Lavi and Allen's, without realising that it was the table usually reserved for Kanda. Then, she remembered. She had a mission with Kanda today. It would be pretty good, for a first mission, and she'd finally be able to fight. Plus, she reminded herself, Kanda could correct or remind her if she did anything wrong. If he could be bothered.

She remembered when Kanda had gone on a mission a while ago with Lavi and Allen. The whole base had been fairly quiet for weeks until they came back. She faintly remembered glaring at Kanda until he couldn't see her, and then relaxing her face to its then morbid expression. She wondered what their mission would be. Would they go to some far off place, and bring back Innocence? She hoped so.

An image of Lavi surfaced in her head.

"_Don't expect to bring back Innocence after every mission. Half the time, we're too late, they're killed in battle, or there's no Innocence to retrieve." He said, sternly, like a parent warning their child not to play in the rain._

"_But, I thought you had Finders? Wouldn't they know if there was Innocence or not?" She remembered asking._

"_Not all the time. Sometimes, lack of adequate communication affects our missions." He said._

"Lack of adequate communication..." She murmured, retrieving the book she'd been reading lately from the bench beside her. It was _A History of the Vatican _by M.J Gardinier

She didn't like that idea. There had never been a lack of adequate communication with The Disciples. Either there was trouble they had to sort out, or they were being sent in because no one was quite sure. They were never given the wrong information; no one ever lost important documents or just couldn't be bothered to send in a proper report. The people who worked on the side of the organisation were fully disciplined, and the twelve fighters even more so. She had never been on a mission where she had no idea what she was doing because the person who had written the report had had a hangover at the time of its writing.

The Black Order seemed to have many more people than The Disciples, but not quite half of them were properly disciplined and even those who were still didn't give important details or descriptions that would be very useful in a mission. The people under the Directress had given every detail that they remembered in their reports, in case it was important in any way. But these...these _Finders_ could be quite inaccurate at times.

She flicked through a few pages of pointless information that M.J Gardinier obviously thought was relevant. She was looking for certain information, not about how some Pope was suspected to have broken the law of celibacy fifty years ago. She had already been through the first volume of the Vatican's history yesterday, but neither that nor the second volume had given the information she'd been looking for. She sincerely hoped that the third volume, this one, held the information.

Oh no. In half an hour, Komui wanted her in his office, for the mission briefing. Hurriedly, she stood up and rushed to the library. The fourth and fifth volumes should have the information she was looking for. If they didn't, she would sincerely wonder about the other secrets that M.J Gardinier and the Church were keeping from the public.

---

Not even two hours later, Jessica and Kanda entered a train compartment on the North-Western coast of France. The boat across the English Channel had gone immensely quickly, and they were now in the town of Calais, on a train to Strasbourg, on the border of Austria. According to Komui's instructions, once they arrived at Strasbourg, they were to discreetly investigate a rumour about something suspicious, apparently similar to an Akuma, and then head north to Luxembourg, where there had been definite Akuma, Innocence and suspected Noah sightings. Jessica checked the report again, and found that the name of the place they were required to go to was Bertrange, apparently between five and six kilometres from the capital, Luxembourg Ville.

Jessica sighed. This was going to be a long mission. Looking up, she saw that Kanda was watching the platform outside with little to no interest whatsoever, and she wasn't surprised; Kanda had little to no interest in mundane things, and train station platforms were amongst the most mundane places in the world. She shoved the mission report into the canvas pack she'd brought along, and pulled out _A History of the Vatican, Volume Four_. Flicking through the first few blank pages, she had an overwhelming sensation to hit something. But, to her underwhelming happiness, the next page had the words she'd been hoping to see printed on it.

_A History of the Vatican, Volume Four:_

_Extended branches of the Church._

To most people, it would be extremely unremarkable, but to Jessica, it was the very information she'd been searching for in her extensive hours poring over history books. This was it! She'd been searching and searching, but she had been able to find very little information on the Black Order's history. Besides one or two of the books penned by Bookmen, there was little mention of the organization at all. Finally, she was going to learn more about this place that she had to call home.

"Hey, baka, you're drooling." A voice floated into Jessica's consciousness from the other side of the compartment.

Jessica jumped. She had not expected to be so rudely awakened from her excitement. Across from her, wearing an irritated and stoic expression as usual, Kanda made the usual noise and resumed his gazing. Jessica's eyes strayed to the page she'd opened to.

_Of all numerous extensions, the most widespread, and by far the largest is the Black Order. It has major branches in each continent, but the only branch with overly remarkable aspects is the British/European Branch. The British/European Branch is remarkable due to its being the only station to warriors known as Exorcists, who are humans gifted with the powers of "Innocence", the only substance that is known to be able to destroy the beings known as "Akuma" (see volume two). _

_The Black Order has previously been involved in numerous scientific experiments, because of its large science departments in each branch. One such experiment was the "second exorcist" experiment, conducted by the American and Asian branches, which created entirely new humans from collected Innocence. Of the "second exorcists", however, there was only one success, so the entire project was disbanded. _

"How terrible..." she murmured.

She hadn't realised she'd said it aloud, or that Kanda was no longer across from her, until she heard a "che" next to her ear. She jumped, and ended up hitting her head on Kanda's. He had sat down beside her while she'd been reading, and was reading the information over her shoulder.

"Shit, Kanda, you're like a vampire the way you move around." Jessica commented, trying to recover her normal heart rate.

"Che." He said again, leaning back against the seat.

Seeing as Kanda had put her off reading for a short while, she closed the book and shoved it back in bag, pulling out her journal for the tenth time.

The latest one was from yesterday, when she'd been extremely bored.

_Wednesday the 17__th__ of October,_

_Today I'm going on my first mission as an Exorcist! I have packed by canvas pack with bare essentials (and a few books!) for the journey to Bertrange. I am rather happy about it, because I won't have to put up with Lavi for a week, as I first thought; I am going with Kanda instead! It will be great, because both Kanda and I prefer silence, so I won't have to listen to idiots for another six days! Also, it will give me a chance to see Strasbourg again, for a short time._

_I'm kinda tired now, so I might have a long read before Komui calls me for a briefing._

The next line was a curly signature, with the clear letters "JAC" and a small cross visible beside them. She sighed, and retrieved her pen and bottle of ink from the bottom of her bag. She straightened up and the back of her head hit Kanda in the face, seeing as he'd been leaning over her shoulder again.

"Stop_ doing_ that, Kanda!" She said reproachfully at him.

She dipped her pen in the ink and wrote the date at the top of the page. She was bursting to write something, but what? Nothing had happened so far; they'd just gone across the English Channel and boarded a train. Big whoop.

She glared at the empty page, as thought it was the paper's fault that her life was so boring.

She put the cork back into her ink bottle just in time, because she had been just about to dye her whole pants blue from the ink. She shoved her writing implements in her bag and involuntarily fell onto the seat.

---

When Jessica awoke, the first things she noticed were that the train had stopped and that there were shouting voices outside the train. The second things she noticed were that it was night, and her head was in Kanda's lap. She sat up quickly, and jumped to her feet as she heard someone scream from the front of the carriage.

"What the hell's going on?!" She asked Kanda, turning to face him.

Kanda shrugged, an action that was very unlike him. Jessica sighed and turned to wrench open the door and tell everyone not to panic. Her fingers curled around the handle and pulled with all her might, but the solid reinforced oak didn't move. She tried again. Nothing. The whole door refused to move an inch, even after Jessica picked the lock from the inside. They were temporarily trapped. That is, if the window was in the same state as the door.

She turned to find the window wide open and Kanda gone. She swore, stepped forward and leaned out of the window of the now moving train. About fifty metres away, Kanda was hauling himself out of the thick autumn mud. Jessica grinned.

Things were just about to get interesting.

---

**A/N: Hello, peoples. I know that was an extremely boring chapter, and I thank you for your patience, and your patience to come, because I've decided I'm only going to update once a week, or perhaps biweekly now, so I can write really long, better chapters. Or maybe I'll just update irregularly, I'll see how it goes and report back. **

**Ok, bye guys.**


	16. Lethal Dance

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Fifteen-Lethal Dance**

She'd done it a million times before. Jumping out of a train was a move that you had to be able to pull off if you were going to break rules in Australia. It was easy, but still, she took extra caution in putting all of her weight onto her right foot once it was on the windowsill. She made sure she had perfect balance and mentally practiced the landing every five seconds. But Kanda was getting further away. She made her decision, made sure her position was right, and pushed off with all of her limbs and all of the power she could muster.

There was a brief moment of triumph when her boots hit the mud with a rather solid _thump_. Then, she shifted her weight carelessly and ended up face-down in the autumn mud.

She shivered violently. Her Exorcist coat was in the cabin, and she hadn't brought a long-sleeved shirt. _How could I have been so stupid?! I got too caught up with the prospect of going on a mission, and I forgot that it's not like the Disciples missions, it's not a holiday! _She groaned and chastised herself mentally.

She brought herself up on her elbows, her joints creaking in the cold. Most of her vision was coated in mud, and she had a hard time wiping it away on her encrusted gloves.

Behind her, and in front of her, two screams echoed along what she now realised was a small valley. She vaulted herself into the air and glanced around hurriedly. Kanda already had his sword out and was moving slowly, alertly, towards the place where the train had stopped. In her anxiety, Jessica had forgotten all about the fact that she was an Exorcist.

But, then again, she now had an excuse to fight, something she'd wanted to do for virtually eons. It was too tempting to pass up. Her hands longed to kill something, they were itching with longing.

_Well then, _she thought _let's go kill some Akuma._It was, of course, quite a worrying prospect for Kanda, which was unusual. But, he shouldn't be worried, he told himself, she was more capable than he was, a million times tougher than Komui's robots. He couldn't forgive himself if he was the one who led Jessica, with the prettiest smile in the world, to certain and untimely death.

* * *

_Stop it, _he internally growled _she's too tough to be killed by Akuma. She probably relishes the fact that she gets to fight, just like I do._

He stepped forward, straight to her side. Both of her hands were in ready positions, constantly moving from one weapon to another, and her eyes were searching the ground for resources. Kanda had to admit, that she certainly looked professional. Anyone who saw her coming towards them with that look in her eye, each hand ready on a different weapon, and taking those sure, calculated steps, would instantly fear for his life and sanity.

Another scream, and several shouts erupted from the large ball of movement two-hundred meters away from them. Jessica's pace quickened, and Kanda actually had quite a hard time keeping up with his would-be girlfriend.

* * *

The Akuma behind her slashed fiercely and managed to catch both of her wings in the path of its sword. Jessica's knees buckled, and she fell into the mud again, in front of the Akuma she'd been fighting. She had no idea why her body had reacted like this, it was a mere tear in her wings, nothing disabling at all. She could still fight, and maybe fly a few meters, she just couldn't turn her back on anything. The Akuma wouldn't be a problem, and neither would Kanda.

Shakily, she stood up and pulled her discarded dagger out of the mud. She turned to face the Akuma who had brought her down, and held her weapon at the angle she deemed best for the situation. Out to one side, with the edge facing outwards, so it was easier to slash and parry precisely. She moved her feet to a better fighting stance, and brought her whole body around to stab an Akuma that'd been sneaking up behind her.

For some reason, though, once the Akuma dissolved and the other two bore down on her, Jessica found that she had little energy to fight, and her movements were getting more sluggish with every slash, kick, or parry. This was certainly not good. And to top the fact that she was slow and low on energy, she was also covered in mud and rain, and her resources were in the cabin, so she couldn't just hide and replenish herself when there was a suitable opening.

She dodged a swipe from the Akuma facing her, and attempted to roll forwards in the mud, but the stab from the Akuma behind her only just missed. Clumsily, she stood up, stumbled over a rock, and killed a random Akuma by accident. This was the worst fight Jessica had ever participated in. She felt terrible, and she seemed to be losing energy and agility surprising quickly.

And to top it all off, she was _losing_.

* * *

Kanda turned as he heard Jessica yell. She'd been fighting several Akuma at once, and this was the second time she'd fallen. Overall, not good signs. Kanda returned to his fight with more force than usual, watching as the Akuma he'd been fighting dissolved. Once they were defeated, though, Kanda discovered why Jessica was losing.

There were at least fifteen Akuma left, on top of the five or so they'd just killed, and they were all bearing down on them, eager for a fight. They had no backup, Jessica was wounded, and with the number of Akuma, Kanda could tell that there was going to be a tragedy on either side.

He sighed. Either they were going down...or the Earl would need to work harder on those Akuma from now on.

And, by the looks of things, it was going to be the former. Jessica still hadn't risen, and she was wildly stabbing and slashing at the feet of the Akuma around her. Her Innocence was still activated, and her wings stuck out at odd angles, increasing Kanda's worry. Ignoring the Akuma coming down from around them, Kanda stepped forward, killing the Akuma that Jessica had been fighting in one swipe of his Mugen. He knew this wasn't going to go well, but he at least had to make sure that Jessica could still fight. He scooped her up and studied the slash on her wings. It seemed to be quite deep, and it was amazing that she hadn't noticed it before.

"Deactivate your Innocence, baka." He said, adding the "baka" so as to not sound worried.

She was breathing heavily, literally gasping for air.

"N-No. It's not that bad yet." She retorted.

"Baka. It's really deep, I can see ripped nerves and tendons." He reported.

He felt her shake violently, and knew he'd hit his mark. He flung out and stabbed an unsuspecting Akuma without taking his eyes off the shaking and deeply breathing load. He felt his wrist move, and realised he'd been running his hand through her hair.

He had seen many Innocence-related things in his lifetime, but he had to admit, Jessica's deactivation was just slightly surprising. Not unusual, he just hadn't been expecting it when her wings had retracted into her back. Her breathing slowed, and her trembling died down. Kanda ran his hand over the blue mark on her back, and the jagged scars running from her shoulder blades.

He took an uneasy step back as Jessica rolled out of his arms, and was promptly reminded of the Akuma's presence by a large blast that just missed his shoulder.

* * *

Jessica stumped along in the mud next to Kanda. She wore her Exorcist coat that she'd recovered from the train wreck, and carried the canvas back loosely on her shoulder. She was extremely cold, besides the fact that she'd already tried every method of warming herself, and her body was so dysfunctional that she was gliding along in a sort of numb cloud. Her whole being rested on the steady pace of her own and Kanda's footsteps in the mud and puddles dotted around the Lorraine landscape.

_Thud, thump, thud, thump, squelch, slide, thump, thud, sink, thump, thud._

And so on.

In the distance she could see a small blot of a village, and she hoped that it was closer than it really appeared to be. She could hear her own heavy breathing, she wouldn't last much longer. It sounded like she was hyperventilating, and wondered what Kanda would make of that.

She stepped forward with her left foot, and accidentally brought it down wrong, falling over into the mud.

"Ah, bollocks!" She cried, for the entire world to hear.

The next five minutes were extremely confused. Jessica could feel the sharp pain in her ankle, but that was _all_ she could feel, besides the freezing extremities of the weather. It was a sensation similar to floating on the ocean, except without the small possibility of going out to sea and being eaten by sharks or sea turtles. She was aware of a sort of soft, relaxing feeling, and of strong hands she recognised as Kanda's shaking her viciously.

* * *

Kanda walked extremely close to Jessica's side, with one arm cautiously around her shoulders, trying to warm her. She had been complaining immensely of cold a few minutes ago, but now she was silent, leaving Kanda to gaze anxiously at her flushed cheeks, weak steps, and rapidly rising and falling chest. He sincerely hoped that she was ok, which was quite an emotional stretch for him. If it was Moyashi or Usagi, he would've told them to stop being weak and get through it, but it was Jessica, and she looked like the walking dead. She probably had a fever, too, and he didn't really feel that telling her not to be weak was appropriate.

But, the next thing he knew, she was falling past him, and everything went in slow motion. Instinctively, he stepped forwards, and she fell, slowly, slowly, her eyes seemed to be shocked, despite looking extremely sick. A few minutes went past, and Kanda had barely moved ten centimetres, when she finally fell into the thick mud.

Everything sped up again. Jessica let out a small cry, and Kanda redirected his lunge towards her ankle, which was lying at an odd angle. He collapsed clumsily onto his knees and examined her ankle, trying his hardest to appear calm. The appendage in question was red already, and starting to swell, she'd probably broken or at least sprained it. He sighed, she could be so _stupid _sometimes, and right now she was such a hindrance. Falling over and hurting her ankle when both she and her partner were already sick, it was something showing complete amateurism and it wouldn't happen to any other Exorcist.

Except her.

For the entire time Jessica had been at headquarters-something like six months now-Kanda had had the feeling that she'd been like this. It was one of those auras that people gave off, like how, even if you didn't know Lavi, and he appeared to be completely serous and righteous when you saw him, you would still get the feeling that he was a complete idiot. It was like that with Jess. He had seen her being kind, and polite, extremely strong and skilled, but he had had that feeling, then, that she was just one of _those _people. The kind who easily get sick, and become a nuisance when they get hurt. It wasn't that she was weak, oh no, quite the opposite, but she seemed to have a low immune system, and when she fell ill, she fell _hard_.

He shook her a little bit, because she seemed to be in a daze. She still wouldn't wake up, her eyes were closed, and it was almost like she was asleep. How stupid! He couldn't believe this! She was _actually _asleep. He shook her again, more vigorously this time. He didn't feel like carrying a teenage girl with metal bones _anywhere_. Especially not when there could be Akuma around.

* * *

It had been lucky for them that she'd found them, Alvarie thought. She didn't like to think of what would've happened to them if they were left out there all night. That girl was in a bad way, and the guy wasn't much better. For a start, they both had serious colds, and injuries of both minor and major levels, the ligaments in the girl's ankle had been twisted and pulled out of shape, and both of them had bad fevers, so much so that she was surprised that the guy was still conscious.

Luckily, though, she'd been able get them to the Abbey. Sister Maria had suggested that she treat them straight away, and they were now lying in their respective rooms, bandaged suitably and with very thin clothing. She had paid little attention to the girl's hands and face, she had seen many things like that before, and the people who took refuge were usually severely hurt or scarred. But, it was the tattoo on the guy's chest that had intrigued her. She had never seen anything like it, and it seemed to be connected to his heart, because the only time she could hear the soft _fa-thump _of the appendage was when the stethoscope was above the large black symbol.

She had spent the entire evening treating them, sending their clothes to be washed, and cleaning them. She just hoped that they would be grateful, reasonable people.

* * *

When Alvarie checked their rooms the next morning, the blonde one was still sleeping, tossing and turning as though possessed, but the other one, with the long raven hair, was nowhere to be seen. His clothes were gone and the bed was neatly made. Alvarie immediately hurried off to find him. If he'd gone outside, around the grounds, anything could happen to him, especially if he was in the same state as yesterday. She checked in every place he could be, in every room. She raced around the gardens and the lawn desperately, but wherever she looked, she always came up empty. Eventually, feeling exhausted despite herself, she slouched off to the cafeteria for some food.

She trotted briskly into the cafeteria, spotting many refugees and Sisters alike sitting at the tables eating their foods primly and shakily respectively. Every table seemed to be full, save for one, which had a single person with long...black...hair...

IT WAS HIM!!! The person, who had eluded her all morning, was sitting there calmly eating his breakfast! How...How dare he! She had been running around looking for hi for two hours, and h didn't care. Well, she would show _him. _

She marched towards him, with a determined and angry look in her eye. Many of the Sisters glanced at each other nervously as she passed, wondering who was going to have their ears blown off today. She walked straight up and stood behind him.

"Excuse me." She said, in her calmest but firmest voice.

No response. Silence.

"_Excuse me._" She said again, patiently and evenly.

"Excuse me!" She said, more irritably this time. He was going to get it.

He turned slowly, seeming reluctant to leave his soba. Finally, he was facing her, and Alvarie could feel the irritation and intimidation radiating from him. She wondered why she had dared to speak so rudely to him.

"What the hell do you want?" He asked rudely.

"I...I, um, that is, I need to, er, give you a check-up..." She said lamely, weakly "If-If you, er, don't mind..." She added stupidly.

Great. She had just said that, hadn't she?

"Che." He said, standing up and walking past her.

Alvarie wondered what "che" meant.

* * *

Alvarie watched him walk out of the medical room calmly, and felt a large wave of relief watch over her. It was something about him that just sent her reeling, no one had ever got her that intimidated before, but she'd been shaking the entire time she'd been checking his blood pressure and his heart rate. It had been rather frightening to see the irritated look on his face, but hear that his heart was actually beating a bit slower than it was meant to. _That's it, he's too calm. He looks while he wants to kill me, but he's so calm about it, as though he usually kills people after breakfast, it's just so...so...unnerving! _Yes, that was it. For once, Alvarie was glad to have her terror rein in her mind for a little while.

* * *

When Jessica woke, the room she was in was dark, and she could feel a throbbing headache and heightened sense of cold. But it was, it was so _cold _in there, she was shivering subconsciously. She sat up, and felt a washcloth slide down her face. In the next moment though, a strong force was pushing her down, and keeping the cloth on her forehead.

"Lay down, baka, you'll end up hurting yourself if you walk around." A familiar voice scolded.

"Kanda?" She murmured. It had taken her a while to realise, but she _was _feeling sick, and the world spun as she flopped onto the pillow.

"Who else?" He grunted irritably.

Jessica couldn't help smiling. He may be being a bit brusque with her, but he was scolding her, too, and telling her no to get herself hurt. Even if he was being irritable, he was still here with her, watching her, making sure she was good, and it was his way of showing that he cared. Jessica shuddered when she thought of how Lavi would show he cared.

She felt really warm and happy all of a sudden, despite her bad cold. It wasn't that bad really, being sick, and it probably wouldn't be too bad, if Kanda did this every time. Actually, at the prospect of having Kanda nurse her, whatever illness she had would probably get remarkably better.

She snuggled into the thin blanket, trying to get warm. Kanda sighed, and she felt his hand on her forehead, checking her temperature.

"Kan-daa" She mumbled, groaning slightly.

"Hm?" He made a small grunting noise, sounding just a slight bit anxious.

"I'm _really _cold, Kanda." She murmured, and it struck her how childish she was being.

Kanda made no response at this. But, his silence told her that the whole _point _was that she was cold.

Jessica wondered how high her fever was. If it was anything like last time she had a cold, then it would be worryingly high.

She heard the flicker of pages, and turned rapidly. The world span like a wormhole, but when her vision righted itself she saw Kanda, sitting on the chair..._reading_.

She just couldn't help herself.

"Are you _reading, _Kanda? I've died, haven't I? This is Heaven, isn't it? Or...wait, would this be Purgatory, seeing as I'm kinda evil?" She mocked.

"You're _not _dead, idiot. Aren't I allowed to read?" Kanda growled.

Jessica thought about this for a while.

"No, I don't believe you are." She finally concluded.

* * *

**A/N: First, sorry about the late update.**

**Second, sorry that it's shorter than I promised.**

**Third, sorry that it's only a crappy filler.**


	17. Gravitational Pull

Personal Umbrella

A Kanda Yuu love story

**Chapter Sixteen-Gravitational Pull**

Jessica sighed as Alvarie studied the blood sample. Why did she have the feeling that this wasn't going to end well? She shook it off. _Don't be stupid, it's just a regular check-up. _She told herself.

Beside her, Kanda made an impatient sound.

_Well, Kanda, you know what to do if you don't wanna be here. Go. _She told him clearly with her eyes. He gave her the most unwilling look that she'd ever seen gracing his face, and she rolled her eyes.

She was, for reasons not yet known to her, in an irritable mood, as was Kanda, though that was his usual disposition. She sighed again and glanced around for something to distract her. There was nothing remotely interesting in this small medical room. Well, that is, there was nothing that she hadn't seen before.

Alvarie continued to test her blood, and Jessica got a bit nervous. It was just normal blood, wasn't it? Synthetic stuff hadn't affected it, had it? She felt herself shiver slightly as she imagined the girl licking it up, under the disguise of testing it.

She heard Kanda make a small bored noise beside her. Wasn't he at least a little bit anxious? No. Of course he wasn't. The great Kanda Yuu wouldn't be nervous from a blood test. What crap.

She took a sidelong glance at him, only for a second. He was stoic, expressionless, and bored looking as usual. He seemed to also be glancing around to see if any medical equipment caught the interest his cold, aggressive eyes.

She felt his gaze back on her as soon as she whipped her head away. She remembered what the citizens from her old home would say. "_He doesn't miss a trick, that one._"

Yes, that would be a perfect way to describe Kanda's suspicion. He didn't miss a trick, and if he did, he didn't miss it for long.

She had taken off her gloves earlier, because she could feel the metal overheating, for some strange reason. Now, she felt a strong, rough hand on the now cool metal. She didn't need to look to know it was Kanda's.

Suddenly, the fingers withdrew, and she thought she must have imagined it, but for the impatient tapping beside her.

* * *

Jessica grinned at the amount of food Kanda had gotten for her, but interrupted it by coughing violently. She was still too unstable to get to the cafeteria on her own, but Alvarie insisted on it, so Kanda had carried her, bridal-style, all the way through the refuge.

After her lungs were stable again, the world began to spin, and Jess suddenly doubted her ability to eat. "C-C-Can you put me down, Kanda?" She asked feebly, judging whether getting closer to the ground was recommendable or foolish. The job was relieved from her, however, when Kanda set her onto the wooden bench. As he sat down beside her, with one arm around her shoulders to keep her steady, she could see the indifferent expression on his face, clashing terribly with his openly anxious eyes.

She reached out, fork in hand, for a bowl of pasta just behind a flask of hot soup. Fitting her metal digits round the edge of the bowl, she pulled it towards her and scooped a bit of it into her mouth. It was carbonara, her favourite. Her head throbbed and ached, and there were repeated stabbing pains in her ribcage. She coughed again, and the stabbing got worse.

"You sure you're ok to eat?" Kanda asked indifferently, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

Jessica nodded morosely, secretly holding in the vomit. She couldn't quite get the food down, her throat wasn't contracting and retracting as it was meant to. Once she _did _swallow, however, her stomach reacted badly, and she felt the bile resurfacing. She didn't even think she'd chewed it right, and she was slowly choking on the mixture of vomit and badly chewed food.

Eventually, though, something had to give. A fountain of vomit gushed from her mouth and was stopped just in time by her hand and a handkerchief. Kanda dove forwards again and, this time, didn't bother hiding his anxiety. His arm was around her firmly before Jessica even knew he was there.

She coughed and spluttered as the vomiting subsided. Kanda was watching her with a combination of irritation and pity. She smiled weakly. "You can't swallow properly, can you?" He asked exasperatedly.

"Y-Yeah, I can, Kanda. It's chewing that my mouth doesn't seem to like." She said, fatigue in each syllable.

He made a small snorting noise. "Well, what's the problem with that? You should've said earlier."

This was quite confusing to her. What was he suggesting? "W-What do you mean, Kanda?" She stuttered, perplexed.

The indigo-haired samurai smirked slightly, and Jessica saw an uncharacteristic gleam in his eye. "I mean," He said, and his smirk metamorphosed into an undeniably evil grin. "That I can chew for you."

Before Jessica had time to grasp this concept, however, Kanda was chewing evilly on some kind of food source, and it was making her slightly nauseous. Before she could look away, though, Kanda seized her, and rammed his lips onto hers. She had time to make a small, pathetic sound of protest before Kanda bit her lip. Hard. She gasped, and he shoved his tongue in her mouth, along with a whole mouthful of food.

Oh. That was what he had meant. Something as simple as that?

She put all of her focus into swallowing the unidentifiable food. It tasted unusually bland and bitter after being in Kanda's mouth. By the time the food had travelled completely through her gullet, Kanda had another mouthful of food ready and waiting.

The rest of Jessica's breakfast continued in this fashion, with many people remarking or giggling as they watched them.

Overall, she decided, this bad week might be getting better.

* * *

Jessica lay back on her pillow. She had been "bed-ridden" for a while now, and she was getting extremely impatient. It wasn't like she wasn't getting better; she was feeling well enough to at least walk around the place. Meanwhile, Kanda still insisted on doing the same thing when she ate as he had a few days ago, and it was starting to get annoying.

She was also limited in her entertainment. She was only allowed to read books, and do a few other boring things. Whenever she begged anyone to let her outside, they would speak to her in that voice that they used when talking to people who, basically, had three brain cells.

She was extremely annoyed, to say the least.

* * *

Jessica was so happy, extremely happy. She was so happy that she actually _hugged _Kanda, something that no one else had lived to do. She was free, properly free! Alvarie had let her out, and now they were about to go on to Strasbourg to catch a train to Bertrange.

_FINALLY!! _Jessica screamed inside her head. She was rejoicing, both internally and externally. She was free. Free as a person working for the Vatican can be, that is.

She turned to Kanda, who was walking beside her with an irritated expression on his face. "Isn't this great, Kanda? We're finally free!" She took a deep breath, for emphasis, and was kind of surprised when the air tasted of honeycomb.

Kanda made no response and continued to trudge on towards Strasbourg. Jessica took his hint and shut up for a while.

Eventually, though, something had to give, and in this case it was Jessica's silence. At about lunchtime, they came to the banks of a river that was too deep to cross, and too wide to create a makeshift bridge over. "Shit." She sighed, watching the water rush past her to the south. "How are we going to get over this?" She said questioningly, turning to Kanda.

"What do I look like, the waterworks expert? I don't know either." He grumbled morosely.

Jessica made the slightest 'hmph' noise at Kanda's unhelpfulness. "Well," She said, weighing their options. "I think we should follow the river north, and try and find a thinner part of it." She concluded.

Truthfully, they could have just followed it into the mountains and crossed over into Luxembourg, but they had some investigating to do at Strasbourg first.

***

As Kanda trudged through the environment next to Jessica, he contemplated her. Her existence, he thought, was quite a profound one, and it seemed to act as a sort of gravitational point for every existence around her. No-one could do anything with her and not find themselves intrigued, no matter how slightly, at her resilience. It didn't seem to be the happy, annoying resilience of Lavi, but rather a serene, pensive resilience, where she could heal from any emotional or physical wounds with no effect at all, and come off plenty the wiser.

Definitely, she could be brusque, rude and rather deadly sometimes, but she was still immensely interesting, nevertheless. She also had a kind of tangible quality about her, as though she had always been there, and had merely chosen this point in time to _be. _Her existence was concrete, real, reliable, any and all of those things, and people took that as a reason to gravitate towards her. And she? She hardly noticed this, too caught up with things that were altogether more important than her gravitational personality. _Even if she did notice, _Kanda mused _she would probably merely regard it as a gift of hers, and accept it. She does have that accepting quality, hidden behind the curtains of Duty and Faith. _

This train of thought, of course, rocketed along the fairly stable tracks of his mind for a while, before making an anticipated, but previously unexpected relocation to another branch of them. It brought him, basically, onto the thought of her acceptance of _him. _It was amazing, fantastic. She had accepted him with the only pair of open arms he had found in his life, and he was happy to have them around him. It was like having his own personal umbrella to protect him from the rains of disappointment that life readily provided. In fact, the sweet blackberry taste of her mouth still lingered in his, mixing pleasantly with the scent of honeycomb in the air.

And that was strange, because Kanda didn't usually like sweets, or anything sweet at all, but the blackberry taste in his mouth created a curious tingling as he ran his tongue over the spots where the taste had embedded itself. To his immense surprise, it made his body feel warm and comfortable, and had calmed him down over the previous weeks of annoyance, and he _liked _it. It genuinely left him wanting a replenishment of the curious sensation.

He was dimly aware of Jessica exclaiming something rather jovially, but didn't catch it in time to form response, even a single-syllable one. He glanced at her relatively happy face, and held back a smile of his own. _You don't know how forcefully the rock of your existence pulls people in, despite its hidden depths. _

After that, Kanda was left in regrettable silence to ponder. Not that he didn't like the silence, that is, it was just undesirable when he was walking with Jessica. And, after a while, the landscape of Northern France started to look the same to him.

Just as Kanda started to feel like getting annoyed with their boring surroundings, they came to a rather wide river. He heard Jess say something again and quickly got the hint. He turned to the left and set off north up the river, not bothering to wait for Jess.

He sincerely wondered if he should reassure her of his faith in her after such a long period of mutual silence, but thought against it. His pride would certainly not allow it, and he spent the next few minutes building himself up to haughty indifference to her affections.

Even though the feelings were purely mutual, he still had that habit of acting as though they were a complete inconvenience. He wondered if her careful self-assurance was her way of doing what he was. But, if she had a damper on her emotions, then the original ones must be very strong indeed. He forced himself to conclude that she was _not _hiding any of her emotions, although the negative ones were certainly shoved out of external sight. It only made him admire her more, though, for her bravery in not suppressing her emotions.

***

Jessica was getting agitated. The river wasn't getting any thinner. In fact, it looked like the part from previously was the thinnest part.

Kanda had looked like he'd wanted to speak several times, but had stayed silent, and had a rather exasperated expression on his face. Jessica was worried, as well as annoyed. If he wanted to say something, he should just say it! She could work it out, whatever it was. She wondered, for a brief moment, if it was about more than the apparent failure of her plan, and her heart ached.

She finally spoke up when Kanda turned around, opened is mouth, closed it again, and set off back up the hill, grumbling something. She stood there, a whole rainbow of worry, annoyance and frustration. "Kanda!" She said, trying to keep the emotion from the two simple syllables.

He turned to face her again, but his face had changed to one of such utter anger that she heard herself falter. "If...If you want to say something, just say it, Kanda! Geez, don't keep it bottled up." She said, finishing lamely at the end.

They stared at each other for a moment. Both of his eyebrows disappeared under his fringe, and all anger was gone. Jessica could have sworn that she'd sensed a nervous smile, but must have imagined it.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about the short chapter guys.**

**Here's the story: I lost my USB last...Wednesday, when I had about 2,500 words of this chapter. I found it two days ago. I had already decided t start re-writing this when it turned up, and my friends were begging me on hands and knees for a new chapter. **

**Also, I've re-named the story already, but the name wasn't on the original list. What happened was that I joined The Muse Bunny, and they refurbished the page so that all of the Admin avatars have umbrellas. I was sort of like "Cool philosophy. Umbrellas to protect them from life's rains." And it just clicked. Sorry if you don't like it, but it works for me!**

**Still, feedback would be appreciated!**


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